


Twin Dragon Slayers of Fairytail

by KariahDreams



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist, Fairy Tail
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-11 16:29:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 35,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5633416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KariahDreams/pseuds/KariahDreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin was discovered as the son of Satan when he was young and before Yukio started his training and was going to be put to death. At least till the great Zeref pulls him out of there and puts him in Fiore to find a new family which Rin discovers in Natsu and Igneel. The peace doesn't last for ever for Igneel disappears and now Rin and Natsu have to face the world and whatever is thrown at them. Will the twin dragon slayers make it and find their lost father and will Rin ever get to see his old family again? Find out by reading</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The First Light

_ (dark blonde author at a table in a cafe filled with unsuspecting people. Across the street lays a preschool. )(Author takes a sip of tea) What a wonderful day in...I have no idea what this place is called, but it is the first part of the setting to our story here. In case you didn’t read the summery and you somehow read my author’s notes, I can rephrase it. This is a fanfiction between fairy tail and Blue exorcist. In Blue exorcist, all demons are evil and the exorcists are the good guys. I don’t see it that way, every evil thing has a good side, even demons. Yeah there are still bad ones, but that is not entirely the case (a red and purple demon with long arms floats by) Take George here for example. He is really cool and he has an awesome taste in rock and roll. (author turns to George and holds up her hand) (demon sprouts a tentacle and high fives author) See, he’s cool, but not everyone sees he is and exorcists don’t even give him a chance, knock over something, he is dead and unfortunately the same will go for our main character. I am at the place where this all starts and cross your fingers that this kid will survive what happens next. (author turns her head towards a park nearby where some preschoolers are playing around with two strange men nearby). _

“Rin wait up”, Yukio yelled, trying to catch up to his older twin who was running towards the park, ready to play on the swings. Yukio was breathing heavily, but his brother didn’t seem to be phased at all, turning around to wait for Yukio to catch his breath. “Come on Yukio you can do better than that. Come on we only have twenty minutes out here before we have to go home and if we don’t hurry we get less time here”, Rin said, jumping up and down with energy. No wonder he got into trouble a lot, he was a nonstop machine. 

“Alright, but could we just slow down, I am not that fast”, Yukio begged through breaths. Rin rolled his eyes in annoyance and said, “Alright, let’s just walk”. Yukio smiled and walked with his brother who was itching to get out all of the cooped up energy from sitting around and drawing numbers and letters in school. Yukio liked the routine, Rin making breakfast in the morning, running to school, class all day where he would hang out with Rin since they both had no friends, then they would go to the park and play for twenty minutes before heading back to the church, sleep and begin again. The best part was his brother, his only friend and the great person he looked up to. Whenever Rin was around the scary demons would go away and he didn’t care why.

They arrived at the park a minute later where Rin took off like a deer, immediately jumping on the swing and rising into the sky faster than a rocket. It was fun to watch Rin do awesome things like this, once Rin went so high he flipped onto the rail, but thankfully got down safely while a poor old lady freaked out and tried to call the fire department. Even though the park was in the middle of the city, it was surrounded by trees and looked like the city was far away and they were in the center of the forest. Beyond the play structures stood a huge fence protecting the tennis court and a trail leading into the place where the dogs play and people have picnics.

Instead of going on the swing he chose to go down that path and look at the fountain, it wasn’t that far. It was in sight of adults and it wasn’t too far from Rin who, even though was older, needed eyes on him, even from Yukio himself. It was a short walk and Yukio looked up at the huge fountain, looking at the beautifully chiseled marble in the shapes of tiny angels shooting arrows into the sunset, flying beneath a beautiful woman dressed in what looked like a bed sheet strapped on by a little pin on one of her shoulders. Water came out below her feet, polled in a bunch of algae covered bowls and into the pool beneath. It was filled more than it should have been during the last rain. Leaves littered the surface and the bottom of the pool, staining the once beautiful white speckled marble. What a shame, but even with all of the fountains impurities, it was beautiful to Yukio.

“You like the water kid”, a voice growled from behind Yukio. He whirled around to see five giant scary teenagers above him, all with strange auras. The one who spoke wore torn jeans, a T-shirt with a strange pentagram with little symbols surrounding it. He had a few grimy teeth and a few fresh white ones as if he had them replaced, some were sharpened like a shark’s teeth. He had blonde hair that was messed up and tinged red with dye.

“Um...I guess...the fountain is the pretty part. I love all the exe…” “Yeah whatever, it’s pretty. Hey, do you want to go swimming in it, the water is nice and cold”, the guy asked. Yukio knew these questions well, especially with the grin they had on their faces. He knew they were going to dunk him and Rin would have to beat up a bunch of teenagers to save him, or  _ get _ beat up by a bunch of teenagers to let him escape. He hated it when Rin had to beat up a bunch of kids to get them to stop bullying Yukio, but Yukio had tried time and time again, only to get shoved into the dirt and abused till he cried out for his brother, or until Rin came running over,  fists clenched and rage flaring in his eyes.

Suddenly there were two hands on his neck, violently shaking and choking him. Yukio grabbed at the older boy’s hands and tried to pry them off his neck, but the grip was too tight. “Answer when someone asked little boy or you will get nothing”, he yelled and flipped Yukio around so he was looking at the water. The hands left his neck and grabbed his hair, almost ripping it out of his head if it wasn’t rooted so deep in there. “I will ask again, would you like to go for a swim”? The teen growled in his ear. Yukio clawed at the hand on his hair and tried to yell, but his voice wouldn’t work, it was like he was under a silence curse. “No answer? Ok then”. The teenager then plunged his head in the filthy water without a warning of breath. Yukio swallowed a whole lot in shock and began struggling to get up for air, kicking until his feet collided with someone and then restrained.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rin laughed out loud, going high on the swing and feeling like he could sprout wings and take flight like an angel. The wind rushed across his hair and wove through his now shoeless feet to carry the stink of wearing no socks away. He loved the swing, especially when Dad pushed him and Yukio. He was happy if his brother was happy, maybe it was a twin thing. Even though they were fraternal, there was this strange connection to each other that not anyone could explain. Rin called it a twin thing. That twin thing was beginning to act up.

Where was Yukio? He didn’t go on the swings, he couldn’t get very high without their father so he usually watched on the bench or walked to the fountain. Rin looked over at the grassy area to see it unusually empty, there usually was one annoying dog running around. Oh look there are people by the fountain, but what were they looking at? There wasn’t anything interesting in that old bowl of water unless it was a dead duck or something. 

He slowed down a bit and listened hard, something was wrong. He could hear a strangled scream, but it was stopped almost immediately. He knew that scream, and the twinge in his gut when it sounded. It was Yukio, and it sounded like he was in trouble. Without thinking Rin jumped off the swing when it was in midair. Usually a kid would crumple down and cry from the stunt he pulled, but Rin only suffered a slight twinge in his leg. He raced toward the bunch of teenagers, hearing another gargled scream. The sounds became clearer, Rin could hear splashing and laughing, a bunch of guys were doing something to his brother in the fountain, he just couldn’t see what. The sight became clearer, he could see their faces, what they were wearing, and two little legs desperately trying to free themselves from the teens’ grips. The leader pulled something out of the water, something with now wet black hair and a pale face. It was Yukio.

“Had enough kid”, he said to Rin’s brother’s face. Yukio’s glasses were missing and he was coughing while taking in as much air as possible. A piece of leaf was stuck in his hair and his eyebrows were turned up as if pleading. Oh these boys were so dead. “No, you want another dip? Ok then”, the teenager said and dunked Yukio in without an answer.

Rin let out a scream that was more like a battle cry as he attacked one of the group. The guy he attacked screamed in agony at the surprisingly tough punch Rin threw. “Holy Shit what the hell”? He yelled and crumpled under the punch on his knee. “Well, someone grab the brat already”, the leader yelled. Two teens surged forward and grabbed Rin by the arms, and picked him up, watching him struggle, kick and flail in bloody rage. “Oh would you shut up kid. I swear to my master you are the most annoying little brat”, the leader growled, his voice deeper than before. Rin could see a strange fire in his eyes along with his body which seemed to become more buff and veins began popping out of places. 

He let go of Yukio who had stopped struggling and fell limp into the fountain. Rin’s heart threatened to come right out of his chest, he wasn’t moving. Yukio wasn’t moving. Was he dead? Was he ok? “Since our other toy was not that much fun, maybe your fighting spirit will be a little more fun to mess with”. The guy took out a lighter and handed it to his bandana wearing buddy. “You can have the honors of burning the inside of this kid’s nose, doesn’t that sound fun”? “Yes sir”, the person growled under the black bandana covering his mouth. 

Bandana turned to Rin and flicked open the lighter. On the top of the lighter a little flame appeared, hovering over the small red device. Rin couldn’t move, the teenagers were too strong and wouldn’t let go and now there were hands grabbing his hair to keep his head in place. “Hey, mAybe after this we can light his eyelashes and see if they burn his eyes”, the leader laughed.

Rin watched as the lighter came closer and closer till  _ WHOOM!  _ His vision erupted in bright blue flames and he was free. His nose didn't hurt and there was no scent of lighting gas so the man hadn't set him on fire, then why was his entire body engulfed by soundless flames. Looking around, Rin could see the teens around him had moved away in terror, gasping and pointing. The Bandanna dropped his lighter and ran off, screaming at the sight of the Flames, some even attached to his butt and followed him out of the park. The leader on the other hand looked pleased, “Look what we have here, the son of Satan. I would never have imagined into you, but in that case, I better take you to Gehenna, it is a lot safer there than with the Exorcists”. Rin didn't want to trust this guy, he was talking like a madman.

There was no way Rin was to believe this crap. Son of Satan? Bull. There was no way he of all people was a son of Satan. He had a dad and a mother and he wasn't evil. Wait was he? Everyone called him a demon, maybe they were right.“What the hell are you saying, get out of here”, Rin yelled, fed up with all this thinking and attacked, pushing his brother’s attacker to the ground. 

Blue flames danced onto the teen, at first slowly, then in the blink of an eye was covered in the stuff. The teen screamed in agony, eyes rolling up and his face stretched. Beyond him two men were rushing towards The fountain, blue trench coats flying behind them. They both had black hair and stood a different night, one was carrying a gun, now in hand and the other a chain. Rin was so angry he didn't notice the boy passed out and the flames retreated back to his body and he didn't see a ghost of a tail flash by his vision and whip the other direction. These men were not far away, sitting on a bench nearby and doing nothing. Why didn't they stop the bullies? They were  _ drowning Rin’s brother _ and now here they come at the sight of Rin’s flames. 

Rin tried to ignore them and went to get his brother out of the fountain. Rin wrapped his arms around Yukio’s waist and pulled back, slowly drawing his body out of the fountain. Rin had him out when one of the men grabbed him by his shirt and yanked him away from his brother. Rin screamed and pummeled the air for something that would get him away and back to helping Yukio.

“Let go of me you bastards and get away from my brother”, Rin yelled at them and kicked someone behind him. “Shut up demon or I will shoot you”, a man growled and pointed something cold at Rin’s head. The boy didn’t need to see the thing to know it was a gun. Rin stopped struggling and tried to turn his head and see who had his collar, but there was a click that told him that there was no peeking.

“Come on Roku we should get this son of Satan to the leaders. I am sure we will get a promotion for this”, the other man said. Rin tried once again to get to Yukio who was lying on the ground without help, he needed to get to his brother. “What did I tell you about struggling kid”. 

“Hey! What do you think you are doing”, a familiar voice yelled from behind Rin. At the corner of his eye he could see an old priest running towards them at full speed, a vein popping out of his forehead. His robes were black with white stripes on them and it flapped behind him as his sandals clacked along the sidewalk. 

He stopped at Yukio’s motionless body, worry in his eyes and he did what Rin only saw once at a pool again with Yukio. Their father was doing CPR. The men didn’t seem to want to stay and watch so they tried to pull Rin away without the old man’s permission. He refused to leave, no matter how hard they pulled or what they pointed at Rin’s head, they would not drag him away without a battle. 

Rin didn’t take his eyes off Yukio for a second, heart pounding in his ears. Suddenly Yukio coughed up a bunch of water, sounding horrible, but alive. Rin felt like the whole world relaxed with relief at the sight of his brother alive, but there was one problem with the world, it didn’t stop the men from dragging him away. “Stop right there”, Shiro yelled to the two men who were trying to leave. They stopped in their tracks, but only for a second. “You get back here. Don’t point that gun at my son. Let him go”! 

“You speak up for the son of Satan, Shiro? You know that will be held against you in his trial so it would be better for all of you to keep your mouth shut”. Rin’s father looked scared now, first looking down at Yukio in his arms, then sadly back at Rin as the boy was pulled farther and farther away from his father and screaming for someone to save him from whatever lies ahead.


	2. Rin can fly?

_ (Author sits around in a cell made for demons) (dripping noises in the background) UHH! Its so gloomy down here and so boring. Look at these chains (shows you shackles attached to a wall) They are so rusty and old and rough. It also smells like rotten flesh down here and the shadows look like they are coming to take me into the underworld or something. (strange shadowy figure dances along the walls and passes by author to the other half of the cell) Thankfully I won’t be here long, hopefully neither will anyone else. The shadows, stench and darkness will also come in handy. Cross your fingers and watch out for anything that might come for you in your sleep. I am joking, but the protection of our main character is at hand (author raises hand) I will stay here and show support for Rin as much as possible even though no one can see me and I can’t strangle anything directly. He will not be executed on my watch. _

Rin sat in his cell, sobbing his eyes. He missed his family and his home and cooking at a warm stove with all the correct materials in front of him to make something that smelled good. All he could smell now was rust and rot and the only materials he had were the puddles pooling in a corner, some old chains, a piece of bread and fresh water. 

Another drop fell from some clipped up chains above Rin’s head. It fell on his scalp like the rest and he tried to enjoy the now warm water trickling down his neck from the drops. That was the only thing to keep him intrested since practicing his counting and letters got boring. He could still see where he scratched the entire English alphabet along with the three japanese ones in the mud in the. Their father made sure the two brothers learned English since it was an important language to learn if they ever wanted to go anywhere like Britain or any other countries since they have to learn English to understand the American tourists. Their father knew it and spoke to them with it when the two were babies so they knew it at least a little. Rin went all of the sounds over in his head again to make sure he knew them. Rin guessed since what his father told him about how the trial went, he would not ever be able to go to any of the places he wanted to go to with his English speaking skills.

He remembered a day ago his father came by to see him and told him what happened. “Rin, I’m sorry, we lost the case. There was just too many people bitter from an event some time ago involving what you burst into. There was people who stood up for you like Uncle Mephisto, me and Yukio”, His father had sighed. “We still lost, the people I trusted most betrayed me and you. You will just take a long nap, they won’t hurt you. Anyway, take this”. He handed Rin a sword, a real katana with an awesome sheath and cool looking blue velvet handle embroidered with something that looked like real gold, but Rin had seen enough gold plated things to think it wasn’t. “This is yours, if you were older I would tell you to not unsheath it, but I am guessing that doesn’t matter now. Make sure these men won’t take it from you”. Then his father had left with Rin calling for him to come back. It was horrible seeing his defeated walk down the hallway, shoulders slumped and slow pace that echoed in the long dark hall. One of his yells seemed more hopeless until he stopped and gave up trying.

Another drop fell on his head that broke him out of the memory and back to the same cell as always. He hated this place, he wanted out and now. He wanted to go back to his brother and father and school even if the kids bullied him about being a demon. He wanted to live, he wanted to live his life to the fullest. No more wanting video games to waste his time on, he wanted to run, cause trouble, and to be in the sun again.

“It sounds fun doesn’t it. To go and live again”, a voice said from inside the cell. Rin yelped and jumped up, not noticing he had a sword in hand, still sheathed. It was way too big for him to handle so it sunk to the ground in his hands. There was a tall shadow in the shape of a man with a spike in his hair and a dracula collared cloak. The atmosphere turned from gloomy and sad to a dangerous air only it wasn’t as dangerous as the guy in the park. 

Rin’s hands shook as he gripped the katana, “Who...Who are you”? “That doesn’t matter right now. You are my only priority”, the shadow said, his voice not very dangerous sounding. It wasn’t evil either, it was just the power he had which made the shadow scary. Rin still didn’t trust it. The sheath came off the sword and the room grew light with the flames.

The dark shadows went away and the stains and blotches became clearer. There were cracks everywhere in the stone and broken metal shards from what used to be chain links. Not only was everything around him on fire, Rin was aflame himself, blue dancing all over his torn and dirty clothes and bare feet. His nails were longer and pointed a little like claws and he felt lighter, like he could bounce all around the room and run on walls. He spotted a black tail too, whipping around with the end alight with a flame. Not only that, but his canines grew longer and into fangs.

“Wh-what’s happening to me”? Rin shouted. His tail swung around, getting caught in chains and making him yelp. Ow that hurt, man this thing was sensitive. “Don’t freak out little one. That is your power and you mustn’t fear it. This is your power”. “But the men told me these are Satan’s flames and I am his son. Is that all true”?

“Yes it is and it is ok”, the shadow said. “No it isn’t ok, it means what the men say is true and I am a demon and-and I am evil”. The shadow stayed silent for a second, then spoke, “Have you ever killed someone for no reason”? “No I would never and never did”. “Have you ever tried to hurt someone on purpose because they tried to stop you from doing was I asked before”? “I pushed down my brother once when a bunch of mean kids were taunting me and he wanted to stop me”. “Do you crave to see innocent people suffer under your hand”. “No, why are you asking these questions”? The shadow responded, “Those are the things an evil person would do and you don’t want to do any of them and has never done any of them. You aren’t evil, you are loyal, defensive, rebellious, but that doesn’t make you evil. I have lived for many years and I have seen many people who have evil fathers or mothers and they are usually the best people I know. Just because you are created by evil doesn’t mean you are. People don’t have to be like their parents if they don’t want to be, but they have to prove it again and again at times”.

Rin blinked and looked down at his hands which were engulfed in flames. The shadow was right, he wasn’t a son of Satan. He didn’t trick people into evil, he didn’t steal things, he didn’t want to harm the people around him that didn’t do anything to him and it wasn’t as if Satan was influencing him. He heard people try and trick him before and he rejected them. Then it dawned on him that he didn’t get a choice now. He was to be executed and would have been anyway if he was older.

“There is no need to give up little one. I am here to give you a few choices to do with your life. It may not atone for somethings I’ve done, but doing this for you might help some people and save lives, all you have to do is choose what your heart wants. Your first choice is staying here and letting yourself be executed. The second is I can release you back into the world and you can try and do good for people, but constantly be chased down by the exorcists. The third, you go to where I came from and I will set you in a land called Fiore. There you can save lives, become powerful, and not be hunted, but you will not see your family again, they will most likely think you are dead. There is a slim chance you can run into them, but I promise there, you will be happy and get a new family and new friends along with a home. You have an hour to choose before the men come to put your life to end.

Rin gulped. Staying and being executed was out of the question, but the other two were hard to choose from. He wanted to see his family again and he wanted to hug his father and protect his brother, but wouldn’t that put him in danger. The exorcists would hunt him and chase him. He had seen the two men’s coats everywhere if he thought about it. They would definitely find him and kill him. He didn’t need long to know go with the shadow was the best idea and there was a chance he could see his brother again. Rin willed the fire to calm down and the room dimmed so he could see the shadow again. Now the only flames existed on him, still wrapping around his body. They didn’t seem to be that responsive, but there was no way these things would be slow with him. He growled with effort and the next second they were out except the flames on his tail to see anything coming for him in the dark. They responded, good, he didn’t want these things out of control. If this was his power, he would not fear it, he would dominate it, be its master slash worst nightmare.

“I want to come with you”, Rin said, his tail whipping around excitedly. Apparently the shadow was not expecting him to answer that quickly so it jumped a bit. “You got control of your powers fast. I can see you are doing this by not fearing them”. Rin laughed, “Pah, ha ha. Scared of these. What will they do? Burn me? I have complete control over them”. “Alright then. Sheath your sword and take my hand. That’s it”.

Rin had his sword away faster than a rabbit, he swore he was hearing footsteps coming down the hall. “What is going on”? A voice yelled. They were coming this early? Has it been an hour already? No, it was the flames. Someone must have seen them. “Hurry up young one, grab my hand”. Sure enough there was a soft, pale, human hand coming out of the wall, beckoning Rin to follow. He grabbed it and let it pull him into the shadows and into darkness. 

All Rin could see was the tip of his tail, sputtering with the blue flames which were threatening to go out. Rin willed it to stay lit to keep the darkness from consuming him. He could hear whispers, feint cars honking, kids playing, and something that sounded like an American football game. All that shifted to things blowing up, trains, people, more children and calls of animals he had never heard before. The next thing he knew he was dragged through another wall and in a natural bowl.

The walls were made of red granite, spiking up to the top as if there was an explosion and it was carved to look better. In the center there was a circle of perfectly spiked rocks arranged in a circle. One of which he came out of. Green grass made up the ground along with hundreds of white daisies. The air smelled fresher than ever, no sign of pollution in the brightness.

In the center stood a man in a black and gold cloak, wrapped over it was a white cloth of some sort. His eyes were dark and sad and he had a pouty look on his face. His hair was strange, messy and spiked yet it didn’t have as many spikes as some hairdos Rin had seen. His skin, like his hand was pale like death, but he looked healthy enough.

A gust of wind blew into the crater and circled around a bit, making the flowers dance towards the center of the crater. The rocks around the crater sliced through the wind, making what sounded like a song without words or instruments. It slowed and stopped, the song ending and the flowers standing straight and towards the sun directly overhead. “This is what everyone calls the Musical Volcano, made by a dragon’s last roar. Not many have seen it before, but it rumored to be very powerful and able to make portals to other lands. Just like I did to get you here”. “Dragons? They really exist here”? Rin asked amazed. “Yes, they do, but most people don’t believe they do since their species is almost extinct. Don’t listen to them, sometimes people don’t know everything”. “But I can trust you right”? The man stopped. Another gust of wind blew in, this time taking some flower petals that flew right by him and into the sky. “Sometimes young one, sometimes, but you have your own opinion. I guess my work here is done. Good bye”. The man turned to leave.

“Wait, how am I supposed to survive out here on my own? I am only six”, Rin yelled. The man didn’t answer, “Can I at least know your name’”. The man was already walking up the mountain in one of the trails leading to the top and the world beyond. “Well, thanks for the help”, Rin yelled at him. The man still didn’t answer and he disappeared over the hill. Rin didn’t bother following him. Something told him that he would be in trouble if he did. Instead he went the other direction, taking a hard path with lots of rocks.

It was slippery, but just the same amount of rocks as the other trail. How was he able to climb it so easily? Rin yelped as he slipped on a bunch of jagged rocks and almost went tumbling back down to the bottom. His knee and elbows hurt and his heart was pounding. He had gone a long way now, he couldn’t give up. Finally he was at the top and looking down at the scene below him.

He in fact was on a volcano for sure. Below him lay black rock spreading miles till it met a field filled with lush green grass that rippled like waves in the wind. Behind that was a lot of rocks, some smoke rising into the air, but beyond that was a lot of rough land. How was he supposed to get through that? It was impossible. Maybe coming here wasn’t the best idea, he would most likely die of exhaustion here. 

Suddenly there was the sound of a huge explosion along with another trail of smoke from the rocks. Oh no, now there was something blowing up rocks he had to get past? Maybe it was a dragon. Or it was something else, anyway he didn’t want to run into it. Maybe if Rin was quiet he could get by whatever it was unscathed and… He didn’t notice the crack or the fact that he was standing on a ledge until it was too late.

His eyes widened as the crack became bigger and bigger and then Snap. He fell over on his butt, clinging to a root stuck to the piece of rock as it slid down the hill. Thankfully the fault on the rock matched the mountain so it was almost like going down a slanted elevator, except more terrifying. There was still rocks in the way and they had no intention of getting out of Rin’s path. 

Rin screamed as the ledge crashed over, rolled to the side of, or broke the rocks in its path. A few times he almost lost his grip and had to keep and strangling hold on that poor root. The spot he was in was very uncomfortable in the ride. Every bump made him fly up and slam down hard on the jagged, eroded pieces on the ledge. It hurt his butt and back. His eyes filled with terror as the ground came speeding towards him. He had no idea how painful it would be to hit the ground at this speed, but he didn’t have to.

With a huge bump, the rock hit a crooked ledge facing towards the sky and the rock Rin was riding flew into the air. He suddenly felt weightless, all was just wind and no gravity. He began to float higher than the rock. He let go of the root for a second an the next he was floating away from the rock and into plain air. The rock sank fast and hit the ground with a spray of dirt. Rin was also sinking and the weightless feeling had left him as he flailed far from where his rock had landed, into the patch of smoking rocks.

He expected to see a monster of some type, but there was only a shirtless kid with pink hair and a scaly white scarf. The kid didn’t see Rin at first, but when he heard Rin’s screaming he looked up curiously. His eyes widened as he saw Rin and he screamed for a second before Rin crashed into him and they tumbled until they stopped flat on their backs. The spiky pink haired kid groaned and sat up rubbing his head.

“Jeez kid, don’t you know you could get someone really injured falling from the sky”, he said, rubbing his spiky head. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to slide off a mountain and crash into you. I was planning to crash into that rock next to you”, Rin retorted, getting up and hugging his arm which had been cut by a sharp stone. First the boy looked serious, but then he burst into laughter. “What’s so funny”? Rin growled. The pink haired kid was now kicking his sandaled feet in the air and hugging his gut, trembling with laughter. “Hey would you cut that out. Why are you laughing”? The kid finally calmed down a bit, still laughing. “You are hilarious, ha ha. That was the funniest joke I have heard in years out of someone that wasn’t me or Igneel.

Rin blinked. The joke wasn’t even that funny. It wasn’t even meant to be a joke. The pink haired boy finally stopped and examined rin with a curious expression. His smile widened and he jumped forward. Rin tried to move away, but the boy caught his tail and grabbed it hard. Rin yelped in pain, but didn’t try to pull away, it would make things worse. “Don’t you know it is rude to grab people’s tails”, Rin yelled.

The boy ignored him and watched in awe at the fuzzy end with a blue tint to it like Rin’s hair. Rin tried to get his tail away, it was really strange to have someone touching him there. The tip beyond Natsu’s hands thrashed and whipped around, trying to get free. “Wow, this is awesome. I have never seen a tail on a person before. This is super cool”. Rin stopped for a second. Cool. He had always wanted to be called that, even if it was a pink haired kid with no shirt. Then another throb of pain burst from his tail. 

“Could you please be gentle? It is really sensitive”, Rin asked politely, through his teeth gritted with pain. “Oh, ok sorry. I didn’t know that”, Natsu answered back and loosened his grip so the tail flopped over in his hands. He watched it in fascination and once touched the soft tuft at the end. It wasn’t as painful if he was gentle. “Man I wish I had a tail like this. I bet it would be pink”. Rin smiled, he never had anything other than cooking that people admired. 

“Whoa, check out your ears, they are pointy and your teeth. Are you a dragon slayer like me”? Natsu asked. Rin was taken back for a second. Dragon slayer? Like the men in the fairy tales with swords and shields? “Dragon slayer? No, I don’t slay dragons, I have never even seen one”. “No no no silly. You don’t need to slay dragons to be a dragon slayer. It is just the name of the magic practice. My Dad is Igneel is a fire dragon. Dragon slaying magic is taught by dragons to people they choose like me. Still don’t do it? Ok, but are you a wizard”? “No, I don’t think so. I haven’t ever used magic before. I came from another world. Do you know of any way to get to someplace with food and people. I need to find a place to stay and I guess a new family”. 

“What happened to yours”, Natsu asked. “Well, back in my world, I was supposed to be executed”. “For what”? “Existing and some shadow came to me and gave me a few choices, die, get hunted down not able to be with my family, or go here. I chose here since I still might have a chance to see them again, but all choices meant sacrificing them”.

Rin was now feeling horrible about leaving them, but this was his life, he wasn’t going to waste it securing that he could see them again. This would make Yukio stronger and his father, hopefully, would not have to worry about getting his ribs broken every time Rin got mad. “I wasn’t good for them anyway. They are better off without me. Maybe if they come here or I go over there, I can see them again”.

Natsu held out his hand, “I am sorry about your family. Maybe Igneel will take you in, but if he doesn’t I will try to help you the best I can.


	3. Fire Dragon Roar

_ (Author spotted sitting on a rock and looking at a stream, behind her a dragon sleeps) Shh, everyone. I am sitting right behind a sleeping Igneel. I am most likely never going to get this close to a dragon again so what do I do, I go over here. What? I know it is stupid, but hey I only have one life, why not make risks. What do you think I just sit on my butt and write all  day...Yeah you do don’t you. Oh well I mostly do that, but I am reckless. Enough about me, this chapter we see a little dragon action...Really, no. Igneel isn’t going to kill Rin. How could you think that. I am joking, but we will see a few jumps in time with the routine of these dragon slayer’s lives, but really, do I have to go over every single freaking day until the destruction of the world? No. Good. It would be pretty boring and I am really impatient. (dragon stirs) Better scram, later dudes. _

Rin couldn’t help himself, he was nervous. He had never met a dragon before, he didn’t even know what size they were. Were they the size of a horse, he actually never saw a horse, but were they the same size? Were they the size of a small plane or big plane? Did they have armored scales? How many teeth and what shape were they? How much did they weigh? There was so many questions to be answered.

It was all exciting, but Rin was nervous. He had demon’s blood, dragons might not like him. Maybe this Igneel would kill him. It was all too risky, but what chance would he get. At least he had the pink haired kid, actually he didn’t know the kid’s name.

“Hey up, my name is Rin. What’s yours”, Rin asked the pink kid pulling him down a steep hill to a group of mountains and rocks. Rin made sure to keep a good grip on the sword and its sheath. “I am Natsu Dragneel, son of Igneel”. “Hey, where are we going”? Natsu pointed to the rocks, “Igneel was sleeping right over there. I just went where you fell to practice my fire dragon roar. I need a lot of improvement on that, but it really drains me”. “Can’t only animals or maybe dragons roar”. “Oh yes they can and so can I since I am being trained by Igneel, I have all the abilities of a dragon like roaring and eating fire, but I haven’t been able to do it yet and my roar isn’t very destructive. It just burns things, but I will get stronger and be able to blow up an entire mountain someday”.

“That sounds really hard. Are you sure someone can do that”? Rin asked. “Totally. Igneel said I can I will someday”, Natsu said with a determined smile. Rin didn’t notice they got to the mountains until after their talk. “Igneel is right around this corner”, He said and pointed to a big wall of rock.

Sure enough around the corner sat the biggest creature Rin had ever seen in his life and he was just looking at its head. Its horns were black, four of them, two long ones at the top side of his head and two smaller ones below connected by some scaly skin. Its snout was long and looked like they could pick up a garbage truck and crush it like the cans it carried. The dragon’s feet were huge and its claws sparkled like smooth obsidian. By its side was a little stream that flowed into the canyon, but his giant tail was blocking most of it off.

Rin stared in awe at the gigantic beast before him, the huge dragon didn’t move. “Aw man he’s still asleep, the sun is up and everything”. Suddenly a blast of fire came out of the dragon’s nostrils and encased Natsu. When it dissipated it left a stunned Natsu, blinking at what happened before him. The dragon made a deep sound in his throat kind of like a chuckle. A voice spoke in Rin’s mind, “Got you Natsu”. The voice was deep and it had a bit of a growl to it. “Igneel”, Natsu said happily and hugged the dragon’s snout. His eyes glowed like yellow fire with barely slits for pupils.

“Who is your little friend here”, the dragon said, looking straight at me. He flinched under his stare, it was terrifying for Rin since he had never seen something so intense.”His name is Rin, he slid off the singing mountain on a rock then crashed into me. I was wondering if we can help him out and get him where he can learn to survive in Fiore since he is from another world”. Igneel looked at me for a few minutes, a deep growl in his throat like he was thinking. “You are one of Satan’s half human children”, he stated. “Really? Who is Satan”? Natsu asked. “He is what they call the demon king or the devil. He is almost pure evil and he likes to have children with humans every few hundred years. Thankfully not a lot are like their father. He doesn’t appeal to them as a father, more like a person who gave them a curse. I know, I met one. His name was Kikuro and he was a good kid, he came from that mountain long ago hoping to find somewhere he wouldn’t be hunted by people who didn’t understand him. He lived a good life here, got a wife, had a kid and became part of a merchant guild. Plus they can use blue fire”. 

“Really, so Rin is like me in magic. I wonder what his flames would taste like”, Natsu said. “You will find out sometime. Rin, would you like to join Natsu and me and become one of our family”? The dragon asked. 

The offer sounded appealing, he could learn to control and destroy mountains with his fire? Maybe this is what that guy was talking about, joining these two and become powerful to protect the people he cared about. This could be a family he could be with, he can start a life here. 

“Yes, please”, Rin answered.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Fire Dragon Roar”, Rin yelled, blasting a huge blue column of destructive fire at Natsu. The pink haired boy dodged it and jumped off of four more Rock stacks. Before landing on one that was far from Rin’s roar. “Nice work Rin, perfect form. Good footwork Natsu, but don’t try too hard to keep these columns steady. You were just fine if you didn’t worry about knocking them down too much”, Igneel said from his column. 

The rock stacks spread for a few miles, all with huge flat boulders at the top. Most stood on pieces of sandstone carved into a canyon by rain and water. Below was a lot of water that collected there from years of rain and floods. It was a perfect place to work on footwork.

“Alright, brother, my turn. Fire Dragon Iron Fist”, Natsu jumped straight towards Rin and his colum. Rin ducked just to have another fist in his gut. Man that was dumb, Natsu always did that. 

Rin jumped back and hugged his gut to keep another of Natsu’s fists from hitting him. It gave him time, but not much. Natsu came at him, fists blazing and moving fast, trying to hit Rin, but the half demon was now awake and dodging the blows one by one, even the same moves as before. Soon they turned into a pattern and pretty soon an opening showed itself to Rin. “Fire Dragon Claw”, he yelled and slammed his flaming blue foot into Natsu’s side, under his arm. 

Natsu went flying into a huge boulder sitting on top of a column which swayed from the momentum, but it was secure enough to not go toppling over and bringing Natsu with it. Rin’s brother leaned out of the eight year old human shaped hole he made on impact and wiped his mouth. “Nice hit Rin. You are getting stronger”, Natsu yelled back. The pink haired boy then launched himself out of the hole and strait at Rin. This was the perfect chance.

“Fire dragon Roar”, Rin let out another column of flames strait at the flying Natsu that would have sent the little kid to the other end of the canyon. A smile formed on Rin’s face when the flames hit their target, but it disappeared as he didn’t see Natsu. The fire seemed to be dissipating around his brother. No, they weren’t dissipating, Natsu was eating them in mid air. Strings of flame spread apart from the fireball and it all met back in Natsu’s mouth. Crap, Rin was doomed. They had been fighting for a few hours and Rin was tired. With Natsu now learning how to eat his fire and the power returning to him, Rin wouldn’t withstand any more hits. His knees were already shaking and his throat hurt from all the yelling.

“Fire dragon Roar”. Natsu blasted a big fat fireball straight at Rin. He tried to jump out of the way, but it hit too fast and the fireball combusted behind him, knocking him to another column. He hit the thing like a meteor falling from the sky and made a big trail in the dirt from where he slid. He didn’t bother trying to get up again. Natsu won this fight without a doubt. 

“You ok”, Natsu appeared in Rin’s vision. “Yeah, just resting”, Rin answered hoarsely. It was shocking how Natsu could yell for an eternity and never get hoarse. “You were awesome dude”, Natsu said smiling, holding out a hand. Rin took it and used it to get himself out of the dirt. Natsu eating fire was a good thing, it was rare they had to go against each other in training. It was usually those two versus Igneel, but hey, they needed to know each other’s strengths if they could work together, also in case one turns against the other in a strange change of heart or some guy controlling their minds. Igneel always made sure to teach them how to fight against certain situations and even rare wizards like the ones that could snuff out power and use it against you or something like that.

“Nicely done boys you are getting better. Great job for figuring out how to eat fire, that will come in handy later for you two. Rin, great job, you are learning surprisingly fast and you two didn’t destroy anything this time”, Igneel said. Rin didn’t stop smiling when a gust of wind blew on one of the rocks Natsu had made a crater in and the rock came tumbling down, knocking down another column which knocked down two columns which knocked down four and cycle kept going until there was extremely wide gaps between certain columns and rocks everywhere. “I spoke to soon, but I think we should blame this one on the wind”.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sounds of sticks clashing against sticks echoed through a huge forest filled with glowing purple flowers. The wind rustled the trees and blew black leaves away and also drying the sweat from the boy’s faces. Natsu lunged at Rin, stick meant to stab him in the gut, but Rin dodged and twisted the stick out of Natsu’s hand once again. “Aw come on, that is the fifth time that has happened in the last minute. How are you so good with swords”. “Training I guess, do you want to do something else”. “What”? “Hmm, Oh wait I have an idea”, Rin ran over to one of the rounded rocks by the lake and he began rubbing it with a tree’s nearby sap, then rolling it in leaves until it was completely covered. He then grabbed two sticks and rubbed them together to make a fire. Rin lit the rock on fire and threw it at Natsu. His brother caught it and looked at him dubiously. “We can play fire catch. I used to play this all the time, but the ball was rubber and not a flaming rock, but we pass it to each other until someone drops it. The person opposite to the person who drops it gets to eat the fire. Sound good”? “Yeah! Especially since you can eat fire now”, Natsu said. He then threw the ball back at Rin who caught it with ease and threw it back to his brother a little too hard. 

Natsu had to make a backwards dive to be able to catch the flaming rock. “Oh is that how we are going to play? Ok, here we go”. Natsu chucked the rock full speed to the side making Rin have to run to catch it. It went on like this until both of them, tired from hours of playing, passed out, the rock burned out and it lay in between them, slightly smoking and the sap like embers, still burning, but not strong enough to produce flames though.

Igneel came into the clearing and watched Natsu snore and Rin lay there with his mouth wide open, mostl likely going to catch flies, but he hadn’t woken up choking yet so he must be ok sleeping like that. The dragon gave them a bittersweet smile, why did these tiny humans have to be so cute. It will be hard to leave them, but they were ready. A few years of the training from him, they would do just great in the world, plus they had each other. They were close enough to each other, now was a good time to leave.


	4. Phantoms haunt the streets filled with Faries

_ (Author watches the main characters on the other side of the lake leaning against a tree. A breeze blows by and makes the grass ripple and her hair fly in her face) (Author spits it out and flails to get it out of her face) I love wind, but it is annoying sometimes. Other than that I hope you all liked the last chapter, this one will be a little more exciting I think. I don’t know you all have your own opinion. That is all I have to say, later dudes. _

Natsu yawned and squinted as the first rays of sunlight coming through the trees and lighting up the world. The flowers that once glowed purple were now a dark green color like clovers, but in their pedal shadows you could see a little bit of light. Fresh, delicate, rubbery, bright green grass waved in the wind, bowing and rising. The air smelled fresh and clear like it usually did in a forest. Natsu could hear the water in the lake lapping at the round rocks that were too big to play Fire Catch with or too small. The ball they used last night was almost completely cool, it was charred like a lump of coal, but the surface was still sticky and some sap remained in small clumps. Yup, the day was the seventh of the seventh month of the seventh year, nice day to wake up.

It all seemed like a perfect morning, but something was wrong. Usually whenever they went to sleep or knocked out each other, Igneel would sleep by them in case of an attack by a wyvern or something. They all knew Rin was hard to wake up after a hard day of training. Also whenever they awoke there was Igneels scent in the air if he was nearby. This morning there was nothing but trees, grass, water, and a bit of fox dung somewhere, but there was no Igneel. 

Natsu looked around, nothing. Not even a scale was left of his dragon father. There was only Rin who was hugging his sword that was covered in a scaley black bag or something. His thin black tail was curled around one ankle, he did that when it got cold at night yet he didn’t have any control over doing it. Wait a second? His sword? Rin got his sword back? Natsu remembered Igneel took Rin’s sword until he could control his flames and could use it correctly, even use it with dragon slayer magic which he learned to do with sticks. Was Rin ready to have it back yet? Something fishy was going on and Natsu didn’t like it.

“Rin, Rin, wake up Rin”, Natsu shook his brother. Rin didn’t even shift. “Come on Rin, now is not the time to be stubborn”, he growled. Finally fed up with his brother’s hard sleeping Natsu roared on him. “AHH! Natsu what the hell”? Rin yelped being blast with fire. He spotted the sword in his hand and was taken back for a second. “Where did my sword come from and what is this covering it”. “I don’t know, but I do know Igneel’s gone”. 

Rin’s blue eyes widened and his tail straightened, the tip puffing up in fear, “Gone? Really”? He was hoping Natsu was just playing with his head. He didn’t want to lose more family. “Should we try to go find him, maybe he is out there somewhere”. “No, it is like his scent disappeared. He could be miles from here and we both could smell him”. No, this couldn’t be true.

There was no denying it, it was true. Igneel was gone leaving the two dragon slayers behind to live by themselves, and they were both children. Rin felt sad, but he didn’t cry, he had Natsu. When they were together there was no crying, only determination to get what they lost back. “I remember when I was little”, Natsu said, “Igneel told me if this ever happened, keep living and join a guild that I liked. Maybe we can try that and go on what they call jobs and try to find Igneel that way. How does that sound”? To Rin it sounded like a light of hope. “Sounds good, but which guild would you like to choose”? “That’s a tricky question since I don’t know a lot of guilds, I guess this means that we are going guild hunting. Sound like a fun game”? “Totally. The nearest town is”, Rin took a big old sniff for any human scent, “That way”. 

The boys then began marching off in the direction of the scent of sweaty humans, train smoke, food, metal, and so many other things.

      --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Woah, check this out”, Rin said, looking at a shiney gold necklace with four gems around the Phantom guild mark, he remembered hearing about them on the way there. People bustled by carrying bags heavy with fruits, clothes, and other trinkets found at the market. Their sandals, shoes, and boots tapped against the different colored stone walkway, their jabbering giving Natsu a headache. None of the two was used to this stuff anymore, but they were both easily distracted. The smell of meat and barbecued vegetables hung in the air taunting the hungry shoppers that forgot to eat their breakfast. Tents lined the streets filled with all types of things ranging from fresh produce to the jewelry Rin was looking at. 

He never used to like shiny things, passing by each jewelry store and gold object without even a glance, but now was different. His time with Igneel changed his ideas about shiny things. The granite looked more rare and like a shiny hardened milkshakes. The veins of fool's gold looked like it was worth as much as the real gold. Simple jewelry looked like a privilege to be worn. 

“Now is not the time to be looking at...Oh it is shiney”. Natsu huddled next to Rin to look at the shiney, sparkly thing. Apparently he had that too, maybe it was a dragon slayer thing.

“Do you like our mark little boys”, a rough looking man smiled at them. Rin didn’t pay attention to his different colored bald head and scared face, he was focused on the man’s teeth now. They were almost brown, covered in plauqe and food, little pieces of black stuck between the teeth which looked liked they had been shoved together in no apperent order. Other than that the man had a symbol on his neck matched the piece of jewelry below. 

“Not really, but the thing is shiney and we like to look”, Rin answered since Natsu really couldn’t look away. His head was moving to the side to see the gems in a different angle of light. “Aw come on, two little cuties would do well in our guild and there is not a lot of annoying little girls chasing you around all the time”, the man said with a little of a growl in his voice Rin officially didn’t like him. At least he knew some girls who didn’t back away slowly when he came to say hi or find a table that people would let him eat on. 

“We said no, now can we just look at this in peace please”, Rin said, now angry, his tail swinging around in agitation. He was finally able to look down at the glittering stones in peace, the guy shut up talking about the Phantom guild. Rin had seen enough of those with Igneel to know they didn’t look very family friendly place. Natsu didn’t like it either, how did Rin know, the guy complained how it smelled, but Rin was used to the smell of sweaty men for some reason.

Suddenly there was a huge hand on his tail, holding it still with an iron hard grip. Rin yelled in pain and a desperate stream of fire shot out of his mouth without even saying the words to activate the spell. Another hand appeared on his mouth along with the feeling of someone’s hot, fish breath on the back of his neck. “You either buy the item or join us kid, you don’t have any choice if you want to live”, the person behind him crushed the tail in his hands. It felt like it was being snapped in half due to the sensitivity. 

Rin thought over the words activating the iron fist spell over and over again till his hands were ablaze with blue fire. He then twisted around and socked the guy behind him in his big, flat nose. “Fire Dragon Roar”, Natsu yelled from behind him and Rin’s attacker was getting his new broken nose burned by a blast of fire. “Freaks, you don’t mess with my brother. Got that”, Natsu yelled, a vein popping out of his forehead in anger.

The crowd around them gasped and whispered, “Dragon slayers”? “There is two of them”, “Did you see that, they stood up to the Phantom’s loons. Are they crazy”. The man who was blasted turned and ran away, his face still smoking from Natsu’s fire and Rin’s fist. His friend behind the tent jumped over his merchandise and tried to punch Natsu who lept out of the way in time before a fist met its target. Rin punched the guy in the back from below, knocking the spit out of him. “Why you little…” the guy growled and tried to grab Rin. Thanks to Igneel’s rock spire jumping training, Rin was able to escape the man’s sweaty hands and land safely on the top of his tent. “Fire Dragon Wing attack”, Natsu yelled and slashed downward with two whips of fire, creating a four waves of slashes, all would make the shape of an X when they met their target. The man put up a spell of his own that sent the attack flying away and chopping off building tops and a few tents. 

“Is that all that you can do”? The man yelled. Suddenly a giant fist came out of nowhere and punched the man into the building behind him. “What do you think you are doing? Forcing poor little children to buy your merchandise and join your guild? That is not how you gather members you Phantom Scum? If that is so leave Magnolia out of it. I have no control of what you do, but Fairy Tail is the top guild in this city and we will beat you out of here. Got it”? A voice yelled from behind the boys. Natsu was scared stiff and Rin’s tail stood up in the air, puffy like a cat from the surprise goose bumps he got there. 

The men from Phantom gulped and ran as fast as they could, leaving the shiney necklace and a bunch of other junk made from their symbol. The entire street was a mess and people had been gone for a few seconds before returning and continuing on with their work and life. No one came to yell at the boys, but there was still the person right behind them. Finally they gathered their strength and looked behind themselves, expecting this large, scary person above them with a heaving chest. Instead there was nothing but street ahead a few pedestrians moving by and some boats along the canal ahead. 

“Hello boys are you two alright”, the voice said below them. Rin and Natsu were shocked to see a tiny old man wearing a silly hat and striped suit. Over that suit was a white and gold overcoat, long and somewhat too big the sleeves and tail dragged on the ground. The man had white sideburns popping out of the hat and a little mustache, his eyebrows were furrowed like he was angry, but his eyes sparkled with a tint of worry. “Yes sir, we are just fine thanks to you, but we could have handled them on our own”.

“Oh really, you two must be very powerful”, the man purred. “Together yes...” Rin said, Natsu finished, “We once defeated a horde of Vulcans together when we were younger...”  Natsu passed the rest off to Rin, “Only using our dragon slayer magic and we didn’t get punched once”. 

“You two must be the mighty duo. Dragon slayers, don’t have a lot of them in Magnolia I can tell you that. I can also see you two can finish each other off, impressive. You must be close”. The boys spoke in unison, “Yes we think the same thing all the time and we were raised by the same dragon”. 

“Talking at the same times in the same words. You are an extraordinary group of wizards. I assume you are looking for a guild or no”? “Oh we are”, they said in unison again, then switched to finishing each other. “Igneel said to find a guild if he was gone…” “So that is what we did though…” “There isn’t any that seem to be what we are looking for”. “Well I am sorry. I run a guild called Fairy Tail that has children your age in it”. 

“Wait, you run a guild”, Natsu asked. The old man chuckled, “I in fact do though I may not look it. There is a lot of things people don’t realize about me by looking at me. Like that for example”. The boys blinked, what else could be under that frowny face and mustache.

The man turned to leave looking behind himself after a few feet, seeing the boys were following him, curious on what this guild looks like. It sounded nice, the master sure was. 

The boys followed the old man throughout the city, passing new and old buildings. The boys got to see the large church in its glory, a few pawn shops, some restaurants, book stores, and four magic shops. That was a score on the boy’s level in case they needed anything like a magical fire that never burned out or caught the place, no wait they had that with Rin. Maybe they would need some magical pick me up, no wait, each other’s fire. They were good at the second with their own magic.

“How long have you two been traveling so far you two”? The old man asked. Oh no, Rin hated time, he found the concept stupid. For him there was day and night, but he never usually counted too. The day’s weren’t meant to be counted, he wouldn’t have a concept of year if anyone around him didn’t know. Natsu was the same.

Natsu groaned and sagged a bit in agitation. Rin got the feeling Natsu hated time more than he did because Rin grew up as a baby on it. Rin could almost feel the tremors in the ground from Natsu’s brain trying to work out the many days they walked, most of it Rin forgot because it was boring, just carriages passing by or people in the fields as they walked. They just remembered the guilds they tried before here. There was four phantoms at first, they got confused about that and the halls were scary and filled with tough men and women that looked like they would eat their own children if they had any. Rin had to drag Natsu out of one because one of those women was actually going to eat him.

Then there was Blue Pegasus. That was on another level that reminded them of a lovers guild. The master there looked like a gay bald clown that was always flirting with the girls and the boys. That included Rin. They could remember the experience clear as day, the guy bending over to them even though it looked impossible. Rin remembered the man’s fat hands on his neck, the clown was trying to get a better look at his face and ears. The words of that man still chilled his spine, it sounded so motherly, but also creepy, “I would love to have a cutie like you here. I bet you would grow up to be a beautiful lover”. Those two were out of there faster than most running wizards.

Lamia Scale, that was a two second thing. The boys peeked through the door, looked around. It would have seemed nice except the fact that an old lady was spinning everyone in that guild, shrieking at them like a witch. They then closed the door and pretended they were just walking by. They actually landed in Magnolia because they were going over to the town next to it that was supposed to have a guild full of fire wizards that needed a butt whoopin badly.

“Um a month or something, there was a lot of walking and we get our heads bashed a lot so we don’t remember the little stuff”, Rin answered when Natsu looked like he was going to explode from trying to remember each day they walked uneventfully and hunted for food. “Oh, well haven’t you boys ever rested on the way, you look tired”, the old man asked. He had no idea, but Natsu answered, “We haven’t been able to sleep for three days due to the critters in the forest and a few annoying hunters looking for game and being loud enough for a deaf mole to hear”. “Well even if you don’t join the guild, we have some rooms upstairs you can stay in until you are ready to go on your way. My treat, since you two are so young and out on your own”. Rin blinked, no one had let them stay someplace for free, some guy even tried to charge them for sleeping in a burned down barn. “Really? You can do that for us”, Rin asked, his blue eyes widened with shock and gratitude. “It would be rude wouldn’t it? Drag you two my guild and then send you on your way. No, I am inviting you as my guests”.

This guild was officially at the top of their list and they hadn’t even seen it yet. The sea smell was closer now. They could hear from a distance the waves crashing against the old wood making up the docs. They could smell fish being unloaded and ready for selling, crab being driven away by carriages, and seagulls pooping on people’s heads. Ahead there was a sound like magic being used in a brawl, but it was faint, definitely indoors. 

“Well here we are”, the old man stopped at a fairly big building, three layers like a pyramid, each layer smaller than the first. It was friendly looking, white walls building it up. The roof was made of red tiles and each floor had different colored windows shaped like stretched pentagons. The corners of the building were embroidered with curves or wires in the old Japanese style like in temples. On the middle part’s wall stood a huge sign at first sight looking like a helmet, but then you would realize it was a warped fairy. “Welcome to Fairy Tail boys”.


	5. Ending the Search

_ (Author gorges down food at a restaurant in Magnolia, sitting outside at a table) Mmhm mhmmmh mummmh mm mm nm hmm mm mhmn (swallows) Man this stuff is the best, no wonder Natsu eats so much. So you have waited your patient little butts off and here you are I don’t have much to say here other than I hope you enjoy, I like writing these fanfictions and there is a few scenes I really want to get to. Also, this is a short chapter, there isn’t much I want to put here at the second. Bye _

“Don’t you two want to come in”, the master asked seeing the boys were staying behind a little bit. It was all because of Rin, he had this sense something would happen, when they opened the door, he didn’t know what, but something would happen. Igneel taught him, the dragon said he could sense things  a few seconds before they start since demon’s don’t live entirely eight seconds in the past like people. Sure enough when the door opened a chair came flying out. The master was short so it passed him and would have hit them if Rin hadn’t dragged Natsu out of the way.

“That was close. Where did that chair come from”, Natsu asked, he also knew about the eight seconds thing. The master had already gone inside, infuriated a chair came flying out the door. The boys peeked inside like they did with Lamia Scale, checking it all out. Everyone was fighting, kids and adults alike. One one of the tables two adults were fighting, one with slick purple hair and a young face wearing a white cloak fighting a skinny man wearing sunglasses and his hair looking like it was pulled into a hurricane to shape it like a long cheese puff. In another corner two women were fighting, young women. One had an eye patch and red hair, battling against what looked like a demon even scarier than Rin could ever be. Sitting at a table was a dark haired kid talking to a brown haired girl in a flowery dress. It looked like a serious subject. There was also a few other fights going around, but those were the main ones that weren’t just a mess of fists and beer mugs.

“Alright that’s enough out of you all. You are always fighting at the worst times, even when we have two visitors who were almost killed by whoever threw that chair.  I wish you all wouldn’t fight so much, we are family and family doesn’t fight, they work together and live in peace”. Everyone hung their head and stopped fighting. “Isn’t fighting a good thing”, Natsu asked out loud.

Everyone stared at him, including the master. “It is true not all families get along perfectly and shouldn’t be expected to”, Rin implied. “When a family fights we learn their strengths and weaknesses and it always happens sometimes. It also is good for training”. “Feuds can also be settled so new ones can pop up”.

“That is true boys. You are smarter than you look”, the master said after considering for a second. They spoke in unison, “Thanks, Igneel taught us that”. “Who is Igneel”? the black haired boy asked. He was now in his underwear, his dark pants and light shirt gone from view. The yellow dressed girl growled at him, “Grey! Your clothes”! The kid looked down at himself and jumped in shock. He began looking desperately, but nothing was there except an empty mug that once held a nonalcoholic drink.

Rin burst out laughing, Natsu too mostly because Rin’s face was funny. The boy’s eyes would widen, he would sometimes bend over and his mouth was wide. The ears and the fangs made it look funny, sometimes he rolled over and kicked the air. “What’s so funny”, the kid asked angrily, his hands in tiny fists. He was almost the same looking as Natsu, except Rin’s brother was more muscular and the Grey kid was almost as skinny as a twig. Rin wasn’t any fatter or muscled than Natsu, but a millimeter of height difference.

“You lost your clothes in the blink of an eye and no one knows where they are”, Natsu rested. “That isn’t funny! Cana, have you seen my clothes”? The brown haired girl shook her head, the two strands of curls shaking following her head. The Grey kid groaned and began searching under tables and on balconies. 

No one payed any attention to the boys right after, Rin decided to sit on a bench and survey the scene. No one seemed to have too much conflict, the men were calm and talking about girls. One was talking about his was pregnant and he would have to go on a few extra jobs to feed her. The red haired girl and the demon girl  were sitting in separate tables, not looking at each other in any way. Everyone else was laughing and drinking their beer or flirting with a few girls that stayed at the guild to find a job and maybe some idiot to buy them a drink.

“How about you boys think about it and come to me when you have an answer”, the master said and walked over to the bar, jumped up on the counter and sat there looking grumpy with his eyes closed.

“What do you think, Rin”, Natsu asked. “I like it here, it looks nice and we can have people to fight. I also heard this place is really destructive so we won’t be a problem”, Rin answered. “Wait is this the place that destroyed that town? I don’t remember”. “Yup and with us it can destroy more than ever imagined, apparently it also has a cool history, I remembered that from that old geezer working at that restaurant”. Natsu was tired that day so they slept in a booth in some random restaurant and used some money they earned talking a demon out of bothering humans. There had been a lot lately and they knew they weren’t natrual from this world. 

Rin remembered what it said. “My prince… You’re alive… You had to escape too”. “Escape what? I have been here for years. What are you running from”. “The Exorcists”.

The rest was a blur now Rin was far away from that place. He had not seen a single demon from his world till now, there must be a big thing going on with the exorcists. Maybe it was a sign that a portal was opening for his brother or father to go through. 

“So this is the guild”? “Yup this is the guild”. Natsu and Rin made their way down the center towards the guild master. Everyone watched them, their eyes bearing into the two, hope they would join or not join in their eyes. Grey had a not join, most of the adults thought join, the red haired girl thought join, Cana though when will I be able to drink booze. Igneel taught them how to read eyes. 

“Master, we wish to join the guild please”, Rin stated. The guild master opened his eyes and smiled, “Wonderful, come here and get your guild marks and then you can run off and meet some new friends.


	6. Blue keys

_ (Author stands at train station, looking at the sea beyond and ships passing out and in) Ah, the ideas this place brings. It is almost like the birthplace of our love for Fairy Tail. Also the rebirth place maybe later if you know what I mean. (guy yells) hey lady who are you talking to (author yells back) Your mom. Now shut up or I will make you die a horrible death. (guy yells back) yeah right. (guy leaves). Well he is the only one that will die by Rin’s flames. We won’t pay any attention to him though. He will suffer unheard by anyone(laughs evilly) oh wait you are still here. he he, you saw none of that. Look a train, bye. _

The train finally slid to a stop at the Hargeon station, the whistle blowing and breaks squeakin, wheels stopping their spinning. Crowds of people waited, looking at the big black magic steam powered train in its glory. Little demons floated around people, but making sure not to bother them. People saw them, but got used to them now. Some became people’s friends, pets, whatever, no one knew where they came from or cared. To some people that squeaking meant the end of their journey, the end of all the pretty colors and new things whizzing by the window. It meant the end of relaxing in the soft, always plush and clean magic seats. To Rin it meant the end of his torture. His mouth turned from a wide frown to an opened mouth, dizzy smile. Natsu was slumped on his shoulder, looking as sick as he did, wait, why was he here. The train jumbled his brain into a blob of brain barf and for a second he couldn’t remember anything.

Oh yeah, Igneel was rumored to be coming by, he was the closest thing to Salamander and there was no way Milbo was talking about Natsu or Rin. There was only one Salamander in this town at the second, Natsu and Rin hadn’t been in the town since they last destroyed three shops. Natsu did that, Rin only burned down anything if he intended to, either that or something punched him into something, that lead to some damage at times. Natsu didn’t have control over his flames like most fire wizards, once they were out of him, they were no longer his to command or eat.

The salamander must be Igneel, it had to be. They looked almost everywhere in Fiore on jobs which they did constantly. The only time they didn’t go on a lot of jobs was when they were little, building their house, or Rin couldn’t get out of bed. “Come on Natsu, we better get off the train”, Rin groaned. Natsu only smiled dizzily and made a very soft, girly, happy sound. That meant he was too sick and someone needed to carry him.

“Happy, Kuro, could you help us”, Rin asked, moving feebly. “Aye sir”, the blue cat of the group replied, Happy. “Yes Rin”, Kuro said, growing in size and helping him out of there. Happy followed, his wings out and carrying Natsu who was regaining his reigns, but didn’t want to touch the ground. “You two should really get over this motion sickness thing. We can’t carry you off the train every time we go on a job”. Natsu groaned something that sounded like, “I will never ride a stupid train again”. “It isn’t their fault Happy, everyone has a weakness and for powerful dragon slayers it is vehicles”, Kuro argued. Rin agreed, Happy was a spoiled brat and thought the world revolved around him. The cat wouldn’t have turned out like this if Natsu raised him, Lisanna always butted in and gave Happy whatever he wanted. Yeah she was a good person and was a great friend, but she had a bad idea about parenting. Even though Happy was a brat they still love him.

Rin and Kuro finally stepped off the train, taking in fresh air and stable ground. People were now boarding the train on their way to the next town. Hargeon was beautiful, a place surrounded by huge hills and it was in a crescent shape surrounding a bay. It could have been Magnolia, but it was smaller and there wasn’t a lot of wizards in this town. It was mostly fishermen and traders coming in since it was closest to the trading roads.

A salty wind blew through the town and tousled Rin’s already messy hair. Hopefully those house owners wouldn’t recognize him and Natsu. The train whistle blew, signaling the train was leaving the station. Rin stopped for a second, Natsu should be out now and complaining about trains and how they should make them less sickening. Instead he wasn’t. He turned around to see Happy on the concrete trying to convince his comrade to get up and get off the train.

Natsu looked like he was trying to not barf as he appeared in the window feebly. He tried to push himself out of it, but his backpack got stuck in it. The train’s brakes squeaked again, meaning they were going to move. The engines began huffing, turning the wheels and making the train move slowly, then faster.

“Rin, save me”! Natsu  cried out as it started to move. The whistle blew again, horror filling their eyes. “Don’t worry Natsu I will get you”, Rin yelled and began running after the train and tried to grab Natsu out of the window. 

Happy and Kuro, both back to their original forms watched calmly in annoyance at having to wait till the next train stop before the boys would return and they knowing them, once Rin tries to rescue Natsu, they would end up on another train back and maybe the thing would happen again.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Ugh, I hate trains, they are so hard to get off”, Rin groaned, hands behind his head. “Yeah, I had to ride the train twice. How stupid. I hope we didn’t miss him”, Natsu groaned. They stopped in front of a wood building, the road ending at that. “Ugh, another dead end, jeez I hate these things. Do you smell anything Rin”, Natsu asked. Rin took a big wiff of air. There was booze, wet stone, fish, sand, salt water, food, demons, and magic at work, almost like there was a wizard in town other than Natsu. No Igneel or even the faint scent of the wind of a dragon’s wings in the earth.

“Absolutely nothing. I don’t even know what we are trying to find”. “I have an idea”, Happy implied, “Let’s find a place with fish”. Everyone groaned. “What? I am hungry”. “But we don’t have to have fish all the time”, Kuro groaned. “Yeah Happy I am hungry too, but we don’t have the money for fish right now”, Natsu said grumpily. He pursed his lips and looked like he was begging for the wall to give him Igneel.

Rin looked behind himself at the sound of large, but soft footsteps that weren’t human. In the cross roads between the group, something slow walked. The four dust demons circling the garbage cans for scraps, they scattered and hid in anything that would cover them. A large shadowy creature like a half crow, half penguin waddled past, long trails of darkness behind it. “Excuse me, excuse me”, Rin called. The bird stopped and turned its head to him. The creature had a pure black beak once straight, curved with age as if it had lived for a thousand years. The eyes, glowing green, was also filled with those years, wisdom, pain, fear, all of it was there. All of it the beast witnessed. Rin could smell it, once smelling like smoke, now smelling like fish from working in the ports just like any other person. “Ah, young prince of Fiore World. What a pleasure to be in your presence”, the thing bowed. Rin rolled his eyes, “Why do you all call me prince? I am no prince of Fiore. Have you seen a Salamander”? 

The bird blinked slowly, not moving. Little flares jumped off its back and everything was silent. “There is a Salamander in the square. Not a very interesting. Just go the way I came and you will discover what you seek. Now I must be off, I have a fishing company I need to get fish for. Have a good day”. The bird then began waddling again. black feet appearing out of its belly and pattling forward. “Thank you”, Rin called.

The four waited till the creature was out of view before turning the way it came. Down there was a street leading to a clear area with a big crowd. The group smiled, mostly Rin and Natsu, something interesting was going on. “That must be him”, Natsu exclaimed and took off. Rin ran after him, the two cats behind them, Kuro running on four legs as usual and Happy running on two. Kuro was faster and was almost at Rin’s heals, but Happy was far behind and getting tired of being slower than the demon cat who he saw as his rival for attention. That cat was so nice and got whatever he wanted from Rin and Natsu when he asked. It was no fair.

“Igneel, Igneel”, the boys called out happily, pushing through the crowd of girls until they reached the middle. In the center of a flower pattern on the ground stood a tall adult man, middle aged, with a big smug smile on his face. His eyebrows were trimmed to a pointed perfection, but unlike Rin’s that were natural, his looked like they were worked on for hours. His skin was a perfect tan and his hair was slick blue, made like the younger people’s style. His robes were expensive and he showed off his ringed hand a lot. The boy’s smiles turned to confusion, “Who are you”? They said in unison.

Everyone in the crowd looked shocked including the man himself. “Me? I am the famous fire wizard Salamander of course. Haven’t you heard of me all the time in sorcerer weekly”. The girls around him swooned except for one blonde one who stood there and blinked at the two boys. “Sorry, you’re not what we are looking for, could you excuse us. I think we need to leave now”, Rin growled, thoroughly agitated. He grabbed his brother’s hand and walked away, angry he was tricked by that little bastard with big teeth. Rin never really set a lot of people on fire, but he could make an exception.

Before they had the chance, the two were attacked by a hoard of girls. Rin felt like he was being torn apart, plus there was someone touching his tail. He could definitely tell, but these were girls, he would never hurt girls. Natsu was being thrown around and then they were both dumped in a pile of trash, scaring a bunch of possessed dead mice away. “Now now my pretties, these boys mean no harm, just never met someone as glorious as me”. All the girls looked back at the Salamander with loving eyes. 

They got up and glared at the guy, both in the same slouched stance, both glaring daggers at him. “Here, have my autograph young ones, I am sure your friends will be super jelous”, the man said. He handed the group a white board with the autograph of the man on there, the name Salamander written in cursive and a little arrowed tail on the “S” and R. Rin’s tail whipped around angrily, “Like our friends will be jealous we only found an old fart on the search for our father”. Natsu burst into laughter along with Kuro and Happy. “You should see your face right now, that statement was hilarious”. Happy cackled, “yeah, so ugly”. The girls screamed and kicked them all into a garbage can again, Natsu with his upper half hanging out and Rin with a lid on top of him, his tail hanging out of the side. 

“I will be having a party on my Yot tonight and you are all invited”, the blue haired freak show announced. The girls cried out with joy and ran back to him in a big circle. There was that blonde again, she wasn’t joining them. She now looked disgusted, even a little scary. “Now for the red carpet”, they guy yelled and clicked his fingers. Rin guessed he could pull off the name because a string of fire lifted him up like he was a king or something. He almost crashed into a few flying demons who were left hovering in the air and garbling rude comments at him before taking off on their own business again, avoiding the fire.

The blonde girl sighed and walked over to the two in the trash can, Natsu was stuck so Rin was tugging on him desperately until he popped out. They both landed in a pile on some black bags, one on top of the other, tired from the pulling. “I just want to thank you guys for all your help”, she said walking up to them. Rin and Natsu blinked at the same time and looked at each other. Help? With what? They were just being stupid like usual. What would they have done by being stupid? “Do you need some food, let me get you some”, she offered, lending a hand. “Yeah, maybe some fish”, Happy inquired. “Happy”! they all exclaimed.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So let me get this straight, you are Natsu, Happy, Rin, and Kuro right”? Lucy asked the boys. Some of her hair was put up in a small ponytail to get it out of her face. She had big brown eyes and wore fairly tight clothing, some keys, and a whip like a demon’s tail, but no one hunted demons, they hadn’t destroyed anything since Rin talked to that really powerful one. “Yup”, they said in unison, their faces stuffed with food. “Now now, no one is going to take your food, could you please slow down, scraps are flying everywhere”, she exclaimed, trying to be polite. A bone hit her in the face following by a piece of potatoes. For a second she looked extremely annoyed. 

“ Thanks again for coming in like that, you broke the spell of a love ring. He must have gone through a lot to get that and I know he is up to something with it, but I don’t know what. So what business do you have in this old fishing town, by your clothes you don’t look like fishermen”, Lucy said, trying to spark up conversation. She motioned to Natsu and Rin’s attire, Natsu wearing a black, sleeveless cloak with a high collar and red overcoat with his scarf igneel gave him. Also his baggy shorts. Rin had a thin white linen shirt under his light blue cloak, also with a high collar. He had a cheap coat over that he never usually wore, he only made the occasion because they didn’t want merchants to see their destructive guild mark. It was Mira’s idea of course, now they all had to wear stuff in Hargeon. Behind him was his sword strapped to his back, scaly covering Igneel put on there as clean as it was that Night. That thing never came off his back and the boys had a special spell on the items to keep them clean. Yeah they definitely didn’t look like fishermen, or that bird demon.

“No, we don’t live here, we came here to look for Igneel”, Rin said through a big blob of chicken. “Can I ask, who is Igneel is”, Lucy asked. “Oh he is a real life fire dragon”, Natsu answered. “And you thought he would be in town”. “Yeah! There isn’t any other Salamanders other than Igneel.”, Happy said gleefully. “Why would a dragon show up in the middle of town? Plus there would be a huge uproar and not just a crowd, dragons are mythical creatures so if one did show up there would be a huge hunt for it or something. Plus it wouldn’t go into town that easily”. “Good point, maybe we should have thought of that one”. 

“What are you doing in this town eh? You don’t smell like you fish”, Rin said. Everyone wished he didn’t ask that question because Lucy babbled on how she was a wizard and wanted to become part of the Fairy Tail guild. She also explained what a guild was for to them, but they didn’t mention they were wizards too. To her they were just dragon hunters at the second, one with a tail like a spell gone wrong or something. Rin had no idea how she thought of his tail, but she had definitely seen it. 

“Well I better get going now, I don’t have all day and I am really exited for reading sorcerer weekly so, catch you later”. “Thank you Lucy”, they all said in unison. “Don’t thank me, I am thanking you, now I gotta go, bye”. 

Lucy left the shop. Rin and Natsu sat there, looking at each other for answers, none of them spoke. “Head home now”? “Yeah, but let’s walk. I don’t want the train again”. “Ugh, yeah, plus it isn’t that far is it. Come on, maybe we can check the road there again”, Rin said exasperated. If only he could go in vehicles again. He remembered being comfortable in a car, it was nice, but that was the price he payed for being powerful. The boys made sure the money Lucy left was enough and then got ready to leave. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey is that Salamander’s boat right there”, Kuro asked. The boys stopped their hiking to look at the huge boat sailing off into the waters. Rin took a second to look at the ship, nothing important was there. Just the boat on empty waters with colorful floating lights. Normal rich spoiled jerk party, nothing unusual. Rin could hear the party from where he stood, then it became quieter and there was less movement on there. Rin narrowed his eyes, trying to get a better look. Natsu was trying his best to see what his brother was looking like that about, but his senses weren’t as sharp. Rin had always had sharp senses, they maximized when he first drew his sword.

“Did you hear about that famous fire wizard Salamander”? “Wait aren’t there two Salamanders, both inseparable, where is the other one”. “I think the hot one went out and showed himself, the other one didn’t have the caliber I think”. “I forget their names, but I know the other one isn’t that bad, maybe he is just shy”. “Yeah, but the one in town said he was from Fairy Tail, he must be the hottest one there. They should start making a hot guy article, he would be the first”.

“So he’s from Fairy Tail is he? Peculiar. I’ve never seen him before. Have you ,Rin”? Natsu asked loudly. He was trying to get attention again wasn’t he. “No, never in my life”, Rin answered. “Aye”, Happy said. “Well if there is a scumbag out there using Fairy Tail’s name to get people to come to his party, then the guild he says he belongs to better be invited. Let’s go”, Natsu concluded.

Happy knew the protocol, so did Kuro. Happy sprouted his white wings and grabbed Natu, while Kuro grew to full size between Rin’s feet, lifting him off the ground where he was perfectly perched. They never did this for walking, it tired their little friends out, but they always like helping during a fight or something interesting. Kuro especially wanted to help, it was the least he could do after when he arrived.

The giant demon cat with horns bounce gracefully across the rooftops. A smile grew on the black cat’s face feeling the wind and salty scent of fish and wine coming from the ship ahead. It wasn’t catnip wine, but it reminded him of it. Kuro focused on that and with one big leap, he landed on the top of the water, but was too fast to sink. All he could feel was the cool water splashing as he dashed across the ocean water towards the boat. He only learned to do this a while ago, taking the idea off of the wave walker lizards that ran across marshy swamps to get where they wanted to go. It was useful.

Happy flew overhead carrying Natsu the other fire wizard. Now Happy wasn’t very strong and couldn’t hold out his magic, he wasn’t complete. His transformation lasted a short while, but by the determined look on his face, Happy was going to get Natsu to that boat.

Rin could hear voices now, only one female voice even though the entire boat had been full of girls a second ago. No one stood on deck, not a single soul, some wine glasses were there and some rich people treats that were the size of grapes per serving and tasted like wasted money. Wine and perfume filled the air, also some other scent, the scent of magic. It also wasn’t just any magic, it was sleeping magic, a magic forbidden without a doctor's prescription or permission from the army. Something was definitely wrong. Something glittery shot out of the window and landed in the water with a plop. They looked like keys, powerful keys at that. Yup there was something wrong here.

Kuro lept one more time and landed on the deck, skidding to a stop with tables being knocked over by his feet. Bottles and half finished glasses came shattering to the ground, staining the boards a darker shade of purple and matched the other blots from before.  Happy let Natsu go through the roof, and Rin could hear a crash, but also yelling. A second later he saw Happy carrying Lucy into the air, she was alive and awake saying, “Will he be alright”? “Yeah, Natsu can handle himself”. Rin narrowed his eyes at the cat, he didn’t have that determination with Lucy that he did with Natsu. Great, he was going to drop her.

The men inside that room burst out onto the deck, some carrying unconscious women, most of them ugly brutes with a lot of scars. The fake Salamander lead them, looking off at the cat and the girl flying away. They didn’t notice Kuro and Rin for a second, but then someone pointed at them. “Holy shit it is a demon”. “It’s huge”.

“Hey, did you forget about me”, Natsu shouted, leaning against the doorframe. That distracted the men from Kuro. “Oh yeah we still have to deal with this punk”. 

I jumped off Kuro and toppled over to the men, seasickness hitting me the minute I touched the ground. The men were already trying to hit Natsu, who swayed trying to get away from their punches. “Hey! I am still here dumb ass bastards”, Rin yelled, trying to gather their attention. Some actually stopped for a second to look at him, but the rest kept going. Rin clenched his teeth and stumbled  toward one of the men. He wore a black shirt and tie, a huge scar running across his skull. His eyes were as round as marbles, and they curled upward when he smiled. He tried to punch Rin, who ducked and backflipped, knocking the guy’s next fist away with one food and his jaw with the next. Usually the half demon would land on his feet, jump up, jump off the man’s head and keep going, but he stumbled when he touched the bottom. Rin fell over on his side, getting a foot in the back by one of the guy’s comrades.

“Damn little shit. Knocking his jaw pretty well”, one said. Heavy boots slammed down on Rin’s tail and the demon screamed, jumping up and accidentally bashing every one of the men around him, forgetting his motion sickness for a second. Then it was back along with the thobbing sensation in his tail. “Rin”! Kuro shouted and the cat jumped up to try and help his friend. 

The boat turned sideways by a giant wave, knocking Kuro into the water and Rin overboard like a ragdoll, Natsu behind him, looking like a pufferfish. They both were tumbled around in the water, almost dying with the ship rolling with them, then it stopped and the water disappeared leaving the two draped on the rails of the boat. “Ugh, I hate boats”, Rin groaned. “I am never going on a stupid boat again”, Natsu wined through his puffed up cheeks.

When they regained their wits, they both stood up and looked down at the wreckage, seeing women running away and the men getting up and rubbing their heads. “Hey you”, Natsu yelled at the now soaked man standing below. The purple haired freak looked up at them. “You say you are from Fairy Tail”? “Yeah, what’s it to you”? The fake Salamander yelled back. “Well we are from the Fairy Tail guild”, Rin yelled, letting Natsu finish, “and we have never seen you in our lives”. This time they stripped of their overcoat, revealing the clothing underneath and exposing the guild marks on their left and right arm. Most of the men gasped in shock, others just sniggered.

“Fairy Tail eh. You must be powerful wizards. Well, take this”, Salamander shouted and chucked a purple fireball at the boys. Natsu and Rin let it come at them with a whirl of sound, the fireball exploding against the steel, Lucy screaming, and men laughing. “See men, this is an example of the bigger the talk, the weaker the man”. 

Rin and Natsu sucked in the flames around them and they tasted gross. There is usually a sweet taste in some fire, in this it tasted like rotten meat. Gross, but not gross enough to throw up. “Man this fire tastes awful”, Natsu said. “Yeah like old meat”, Rin yelled. The flames began disappearing around them, going into their mouths. “What the, what are they doing”, the man yelled. “Sir, I think these are the real Salamanders, the twin fire dragons of Fairy Tail”, another man said. Everyone gasped in awe as the boys stopped eating and slumped forward, wiping their mouths. 

“Never eat that again, poor quality”, Rin said. “Yeah, now I know what horrible tasting things are like. I now know why you keep them away from me”, Natsu said. “Yeah, let’s get it out of our system”, Rin smiled, his two canines gleaming sharply in the firelight. “Fire Dragon Roar”, they shot a huge amount of blue and orange fire at the men below, knocking them all out with one hit.

The fake Salamander flew up on his fire circle, looking at the carnage below in shock. “You take up and I take down, go”, Natsu said and the two separated. Natsu lept up from where he was, heading towards the man with flaming fists. “Really, you are coming from down there? That is a dumb move I can just…” Rin ran up a wall and jumped higher than Natsu, striking the guy from behind with a wing attack. It knocked the freak to Natsu, who punched the man in the face, shooting him off to the bell tower where he hit the bell, the clock striking eight O’ clock.

“That fire was disgusting, but nice punch, hadn’t had this much fun punching a guys face in since that time we pounded Grey”, Rin said, lifting his arm in the air. Natsu met it with his, a huge smile on his face, “Yeah, that was fun, minus the boat part”.

“Um, guys, I know it would be a fun time for celebrating”, Lucy yelled from the beach, next to a Kuro and Happy, “But the army is coming to get us, we kind of destroyed most of the beach and some of the city”. Sure enough, the beach looked like a giant volcano monster destroyed it and the city was soaked, some buildings were down, and there was a huge yot in the center. The army, a hundred or more soldiers with the same uniforms and weapons came charging at them, ready for a fight. 

“Well, we better get going”, Natsu said, jumping down from the rail with Rin in pursuit, “You coming Lucy”? The girl’s eyes widened, “Really? Do you mean it”? Rin answered, “Totally, you said you wanted to join Fairy Tail”. She nodded. Natsu smiled, “Then follow us. We will get you in”.


	7. Missing Macao

_ ;P(Author stands near the Fairy Tail guild hall, aweing in its glory) I am so close, if only I was a wizard I can join. I wonder if I can and be part of the story a bit, you know be in the background, like that dancing dude that no one ever sees or talks about. Would that be ok? Please? I know it’s a crazy idea, but I really want to and Lucy is going to join now. I want to see what kind of disaster this will be with Rin in the story too. Well I will leave it to you guys to decide and if you don’t I will just do what I want to do, now I am going to try and learn some magic somewhere, I am getting sick of these stupid people who are so cocky because they are powerful wizard and that crap. See ya till then. _

“We are almost there”, Rin said happily, smiling brightly and showing off his long fangs. Lucy looked at him strangely, she was exhausted, but this kid had more energy than an endless lightning storm. That and he was strong, carrying a backpack, Natsu’s backpack, Happy, Kuro, and Natsu himself. “You walked all this way with all that on your back”? She asked, hoping to get an answer to the guy’s strange ideas.

“Why not, Natsu is tired and the others are tired, if you need help I can totally take another person. I have carried at least four before”. Lucy blinked, he was too unreal. “Does he ever get tired”, Lucy asked Natsu, Rin looked too distracted to talk to about this. “Oh he never runs out of steam, magic power yeah, but with his sword drawn he is never out of fire. Plus when he is tired, just let him take a nap and he will be like this all day, but it is near impossible to wake him up in the mornings”, Happy answered. Natsu just nodded.

The group rounded a bend and Rin’s happy, homey smile turned into something malicious. “We are here Natsu, time for some liar butt whoopin, maybe Grey will pick a fight then we can punch him”. Natsu sat on the edge of the large backpack he was on. “Hang on”, Rin said and began running at the large building in front of them.

The backpacks looked like they were going to topple over, but that didn’t seem to bother the riders above. Natsu and the rest laughed and gripped the sides of the backpack, having the time of their lives it seemed. Rin sure was, smiling back the way he was before, he looked like a wide eyed child as he ran, gripping the back straps. Lucy ran close behind, but she was not one for running so it insulted her when Rin trudged in front of her, laughing like an idiot and free as the wind.

When they arrived at the door, Rin didn’t even take the time to let Natsu get off before they went inside. He just kicked the door and sent it swinging open, wide enough for him and Natsu to slip inside. Then Natsu jumped off. 

“Hey you two how did it-ah”, a bucked toothed guy said before getting smacked in the face by a flying mug that Natsu threw. The two dragon slayers were glaring murder at the guy, puffs of blue and orange flames snaking through their bared teeth with each breath. “What’s the big idea, lying to us. We had to go on the train twice you little shit”, Rin yelled, Natsu nodding behind him. The guy sat up from the flipped table, “Well how was I supposed to figure out that. I am just spreading the rumors along”.

Too late, a huge fight broke out, mostly because Mr. Bucktooth landed on some guy’s foot and got into a fight with him. The table that was flipped knocked over a few guy’s drinks over which sent them into a riot.

“Aw yeah, a manly fight”, Elfman yelled out loud and punched anyone who got to close. He had completely transformed over the years, from the shy guy in the corner petting a bird to this big hulking masculine person saying “Man” all the time. 

A dark haired boy sat up from his table and trudged over to the twins who had been looking for him to punch. “Oi coal for brains, did you start this”? Grey was face to face with Natsu whom he disliked more since Rin was sometimes able to talk normally. “What if we did? What do you plan to do then”? Natsu asked, a toothy grin on his face. Rin and Grey looked almost exactly alike, but Grey always had a slim, grumpy look on his face and eyes almost completely black. Rin’s hair was a little more blue, he actually wore clothes and he wasn’t very grumpy at times, plus his eyes were blue and joyful. 

“Grey, where are your clothes”, Cana said from over at the bar in her minimal amount of clothing. Her usual barrel of wine sat next to her, most likely half empty since she had been drinking and her lips were purple from it. “I don’t have time for that”, Grey yelled,  throwing a punch at Natsu. With him distracted Rin jumped up on a table, then leaped in the air, bringing his foot down at the back of Grey’s head with a whoop of triumph. Thankfully he jumped off before Grey could give him the cold fingers that would put frost on your leg if he ever touched you. Rin was laughing hysterically at the almost naked Grey on the ground, growling at him from below. “Why you little, Ice make-blah”. Grey had to jump out of the way of an orange flaming fist.

“Hey what gives, I was down man”, Grey yelled. Rin laughed out loud, tears coming out of his eyes at the sight, it was so funny. Little demons belonging to the guild around them were cackling their heads off, a hobgoblin beating his fist against a wall, a big ghostly grey wolf with swirls rolling on the floor, and a skeletal horse belonging to Alzac stomping a hoof. Grey narrowed his eyes at them, not knowing what was going on until he looked down to see even his underwear was gone. Natsu stood there laughing and swinging the

“Now you three, stop acting like little children and fight like Men would ya”, Elfman said to the boys now standing on a broken table. “Shut up”, they yelled in unison and punched the so called “man” to the back of the guild. That was the only time the three agreed on something, Elfman was annoying and cocky at times, now he made a big hole in the wall.

Suddenly a huge shadow emerged from within the guild and a giant hand slammed down flat on the three quarreling teens, crushing them. “Would all of you fools stop fighting. This is getting ridiculous”. Rin could only see the shadows massive fists and glowing eyes, a mustache poking out from above the snarling teeth. “Sorry master”, they whimpered pitifully. Lucy was staring at them all in horror. The giant gave an exasperated sigh and shrunk slowly down to his normal form, the fist leaving Rin’s back so he could scurry out of the way as fast as possible. In the giants place stood their master, a short old man dressed in a orange striped clown costume.

Lucy stood there, eyebrow twitching and face contorted with surprise and a little bit of fear. She stood a foot away from where she was originally. “There is no need to worry dear, sometimes these boys need a little getting into shape, isn’t that right Natsu”, The master asked on Natsu’s back. “Yes sir”, he squeaked, face squished under a piece of wood and the master’s foot. Lucy looked a little reluctant, but at least it wasn’t complete chaos.

“On that note”, The master leaped in the air, soaring over the crowd and bumping his head on a beam. None of the guild members tried to catch him, usually this was planned and the master was tougher than he looked as a tiny old man. He landed unceremoniously on the thick rail on the upper half of the building on his head and flopped down on the rail. The master than feebly rolled over and stood up, straightening and clearing his throat as if nothing happened. Someone handed him a pile of papers.

“Look at all this paperwork! This is the most the magic council has sent in ages. Do you know how much trouble you have caused the guild”? Everyone looked guiltily at the floor. Rin appeared at Natsu’s side and wore the same apologetic look he did, but his tail swished the floor guiltily.    
“BUT”! The master piped up. Everyone looked up at him with the papers in his hands. The papers burst into flames with a pop and he dropped them where they fell faster to the floor, spreading around like a volcano’s fire balls. The two dragon slayers took no time at all to eat them before they landed on the floor, Natsu being more successful than Rin at it, but at least the demon got two or three.

“We don’t care about the magic council, we don’t care about rules and all of their crap because it stops us from reaching full potential. We can’t let rules stop that, it is what the Fairy Tail guild is for and why we are the greatest in Fiore”. Everyone cheered and raised whatever mugs they had left, some were cracked. “That’s our master for you”, Happy said hovering by Lucy. “Yup there is no master as fantastic as ours”, Kuro said at Lucy’s feet. “I have to agree with you, this is an extraordinary guild. Where do I sign up now”, Lucy asked.

“Oh you can just come over here and I will give you your guild mark”, Mirajane said from behind them, making Lucy jump a little. The blonde’s eyes sparkled like a childs, “You are Mirajane, wow, I am such a huge fan”. “Well thank you and welcome to Fairy Tail, follow me”. Lucy let out a squeal of joy and followed her, leaving Rin and Natsu staring at her from behind. 

Why would someone be excited to see Mirajane, she was always around at any time and never missed a day except to visit Lisana’s grave with Elfman. Now she was more bearable than when she was younger, that had been a complete nightmare to be around. Ever since they first met, the boys had been afraid of her, everything from the dark spider covered clothing, her attitude, her power, and the way she stared at them or yelled when they were insufferable. Now she was really sweet, had a nice haircut, didn’t yell or use her magic anymore since the Elfman incident. She smiled now, a smile that everyone loves in the kitchen, Rin sure likes to see it in the morning. The cameras couldn’t catch it though, that was lucky so the guild was the only ones who could see it.

“Oh hey I wonder if there are new jobs on the board, the pay you get each day for making breakfast isn’t enough to pay for an entire day’s meal, better get a job on the board I guess”. Rin shrugged and followed Natsu to the board where they inspected the new requests. Rin’s tail swung side to side fast in interest. Let’s see, a strange black one with white writing, can’t read that so nope, hunting flying fish, na Natsu never liked doing anything he can’t fry to a crisp with fire. There was hunting down a giant slug, that was interesting, helping out with handling a herd of demonic half horse, half wolf demons that were far away from proper lands with the proper materials to keep them alive, that had Visca and Alzac’s names written all over it, lost hobgoblin in a family, probably a kid wanting his friend back and over exaggerating if the thing went out to hunt for two long. ALl of the requests had pictures  over them like the demon horses who were thinner than they should be and nuzzling the grass, a little bonde boy hugging a fat, smiling hobgoblin, flying fish in a flock, and what the giant slug kind of looked like, it wasn’t really a good drawing, more like a shadow sitting on a house surrounded by coaltar who feed of the stench.

“Hey you two check this out, I got the guild mark on my hand”, Lucy said happily behind them. Rin looked behind himself to see her smiling and holding up her hand with the pink emblem. “That’s awesome Lupy”, Natsu said, most likely trying to read the signs, but was having trouble on what looked like the flying fish, there was a lot of big words on there, words that Rin just skipped over because they gave him a headache or sometimes put him to sleep standing there. “My name is Lucy”, she demanded angrily at Natsu’s distracted behind.

Everyone stopped as the doors burst open wide as if a huge tornado just blew in. Rin wasn’t surprised to see little Romeo in the doorway, his blueish hair a complete mess and his face wet with snot and wiped away tears. His big eyes, glittering with huge tears like waterfalls stared forward and searched the room, his teeth clenched in sadness. “Where is my daddy”, he sobbed. Everyone stopped talking so all that could be heard was the uncomfortable sounds of the coal tar feeling uneasy in the corner, the deep breathing of Alzac’s horse, and some guy coughing. Even the outside streets were quiet, there weren’t any shoppers or merchants, no demons. Loki sat in the corner his glasses reflecting the light to block his mood, the girls had stopped giggling and no hearts appeared in the air beside them. 

Romeo walked to the master and yelled again, “WHERE IS MY DADDY”? “This is the third time this week Romeo, have some faith in your father he is a wizard”, the master said sternly. He sounded like an enemy to someone who would have just walked in, but Rin knew better, if master tried to comfort the boy all mushy, he would have to deal with more challengers and give Romeo less hope. The master showed confidence in his words that secretly worked magic on the little boy even if Romeo didn’t show it. “Please, you have to send someone for him. Come on it isn’t that far. Please I am worried, what if something happened to him”, Romeo yelled, tears splattering against the floor.

Rin and Natsu didn’t need mind reading powers to know what they both were thinking, the memories always resurfaced, lapping at their consciousness like waves going in and out. The day they found out Igneel was gone, the lonely walk backs from jobs finding nothing. The one time Rin cried his eyes out a night when that dumb guy mislead them, it was a horrid night for the little demon. At least they had each other to help cope, losing a father was hard, Rin especially hated it since it had happened twice, one got taken away, another disappeared. Romeo on the other hand, he had no one to cope with except for his father's pompadora haired, cigar smoking friend or some of the other drunks that had ties to his father. He didn’t have a mother either, just left after he was born and it had become a babysit project for the guild. No, this wouldn’t happen to Romeo as it happened to them, the dragon slayers both knew that. 

Their eyes didn’t even meet as they trudged out the door, Romeo yelling and punching the master behind them. The boys both held the door open as Romeo stepped out and slowly followed Romeo, gaining speed and passing by him, eyes shaded. They both ruffled the little boys hair and, looked up determined.

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“Why is it so cold”, Lucy whined, pushing against the raging winds ahead. Rin and Natsu didn’t seem to mind, they were fire dragon slayers and they both got shot in the head by Gray so it wasn’t too bad for them, but Rin iched with annoyance as every snowflake dropped on where clothes weren’t protecting him. He liked hot, not cold, the cold was his least favorite things next to Happy complaining about fish. Kuro also didn’t like the cold, it had the same effect on him if not more. He bared his teeth against the wind, his tails strait with effort and his face almost white with snowflakes. Happy was also trudging along, determined to get the job done and seeming to race Kuro. Rin had his tail away, it was the only thing that kept him warm, it was also his weakness, if it was out in the cold that temperature will spread all over him.

“Well why did you come along Lucy”, Natsu yelled back at her, not the least bit annoyed. “I didn’t know it would be like this, it is the middle of the summer why would there be a blizzard”? She yelled back, shivering where she stood, gold keys glinting and rattling by her side. “It is always cold up here, why else would there be snow vulcans”, Rin yelled. Lucy’s eyes widened, “Vulcans? Vulcans!? Is that what your friend was fighting? Vulcans. Ok now I am scared”. 

Her face brightened a little and she pulled out a silver key yelling, “open the clock constellation, Horologium”. With a flash of light a clock appeared with a face and arms, also little stubby legs that would have seen pretty useless seeing how big the thing was. The next thing they knew Lucy was inside the clock curled up and holding her knees. She wore a face of relief as if it was warm in there.

“Uh, Lucy? Whatcha doing in there”? Happy asked. The clock began speaking in an accent that a butler would use, “I will not be stupid and freeze out there like you four idiots, she inquires intelligently”. The two dragon slayers stared at the thing in slight surprise, but it wasn’t that surprising since they had seen crazier in this strange world of theirs. A small snow puff demon crashed into the clock, made a squeak sound and rolled off, but the clock didn’t move. 

Natsu was the first to start moving again, behind was Rin, then the clock man that squeaked each step he took up the mountain. They both didn’t try and speak to Lucy or the thing would answer them in it's annoying polite voice, it was strange. The boys weren’t used to a clock following them, the feeling tapped at their senses of being followed that they had acquired on their many trips and fights.

The mountain’s winds slowed down and drifting puff ball demons floated around, their long white tails swinging and white horns getting caught on branches. Kuro’s head moved up and down watching them possess a snowflake and leave it when it hit the ground, just to possess another snow flake above it when the crystal attached to the ground.

“I have never seen those things before’ she inquires curiously”, the clock said. The sudden voice made the group jump a bit. “Uh well they are always in mountain ranges like this”, Natsu stated as if this was not new information for anyone. Most wizard like Lucy should know about them if they traveled a lot, especially in winter up in the mountains with minimal storms, puff demons hated storms, it scared them. “Well I am not usually in mountain ranges, I stay down where it is warm and I can buy magic items’ she inquires”. The clock answered. “Well we call them puff demons or some people call them snow spirits since they don’t really harm anyone. They are bigger than coal tar and I know Mirajane wants one as a pet”, Rin said lifting his hand out and letting one float down to his hand. 

The puff demon had black eyes like little marbles with little white reflections of other snowflakes. It just looked like a white fluffy ball with a tail to match and its horns pointed forward like shrunken bull’s. It landed on Rin’s hand upside down, but snapped upright on tiny wight pegs for legs and feet, they usually did this when he was touching them, anyone else they would possess the next snow flake. 

“Awww, it is so cute’, she inquires with a shrill voice”, the clock said as Lucy leaned against the pane to get a better look at it. “So little guy, have you seen someone from fairy tail around here, someone fighting vulcans. I really need to find him and bring him home safely”.

The puff ball lifted one of his stumpy legs and pointed it upwards beyond Rin’s head. At first he blinked at the thing, but it screeched in terror, wide mouth opening into a black circle before disappearing. 

Just then there was a huge crash and a cloud of snow flew into the air and knocked the dragons slayers back. Natsu went right into a wall, making a human sized crater, but Rin held on for dear life to the side of the cliff to not plummet into the spiky icy falls always frozen below. 

“What the hell. Natsu, Rin, save me from this stupid monkey’ she inquires with fear”, The clock said again. There was another voice too, one deep and untamed like an animals, but primitive like another dumber breed of human. “Me like woman”, it said and Rin could hear the thundering of something with four feet. 

“Quickly Rin, a vulcan took Lucy”, Natsu said, pulling his adopted brother up from certain death he was going to plunge into seconds before. The cold bit at Rin’s unsheathed tail and his entire body seemet to get colder with the weather. Kuro, who had been clawed onto a piece of the dragon slayer’s clothing, clinging for life even when Rin was safely on the ground. His tails were puffy.

“Crap those things compete with Grey and right now they are winning in that race”, Natsu swore rubbing the back of his pink spiked hair. “You stole the words from mouth brother. Now let’s get Lucy back before that stupid monkey does something he will regret”, Rin punched his palm showing his aggression as a puff of fire burst from between his teeth. 

 

There was a huge crash as a giant bull man failed to slice open his opponent. His hide was thick as woven iron and his fur was short, long enough for his creamy white color and black stained spots to cover beneath him, but short enough to let his bulging muscles be clear and for some reason even his pecs. His tail swished by his booted feet and whipped over his shoulders that could probably hide a woman in for after the sun went down. The giant Ape he was fighting landed with a thud near some hanging stalactites. The monster’s stupid grin angered the bull in Superman’s black underwear who charged, giant ax ready for slashing, his brown horns pointing ahead of him and gold nose ring rattling. “For Lucy”, he bellowed, and the sound of a swishing ax passed by his long sharp cow ears. The monkey’s smile grew wider for a split second before he jumped out of the way of the ax, letting it crash to the ice and shook the entire cave which shed its hanging contents.

One crashed by Lucy’s feet and splinters of ice hit her leg and scratched it a bit , but her boots mostly saved her. “Be careful Taurus, you can bring the whole mountain down you know”, Lucy yelled, her voice growling a bit like it did when she was angry. Taurus liked it when she spoke like that, so commanding and so wild, now only if he could capture it in a heart like most women he met. Her lovely mother fell for his charm, she didn’t act like it, but he knew she did. Why? Because he was Taurus.

“Alright Lady Lucy, but after this how about a little smoooch”, the bull said kindly, pink hearts of his eyes. “Just get that perverted freak to keep his grubby hands off me”. Ha ha, Lucy was for him so bad. But she was more stubborn than her mother. How cute.

The monkey came right at Lucy, trying to grab her again, but Lucy confidently stood her ground. The ax swung around again and this time hit the monkey, knocking the beast into the opposite wall. Snow and ice flew everywhere, masking the giant vulcan for a second. “Yeah we got him”, Lucy yelled jumping up  a bit, but not too much due to the fact underneath her feet was thick layers of ice that were slippery from all of the activity. “You rock Lucy. How about that Smoo-”. Two flaming  feet came out of nowhere and knocked Taurus to the ground before he could say anything else. The forms of Natsu and Rin appeared after them and landed gracefully on the ice as Taurus skidded for an entire track on his chin before crashing into a wall of ice, getting his horns stuck in it. Lucy turned to the two boys, fuming under that blonde head of hers. “You idiots I had him”, she yelled at the two dragon slayers. Dubious looks spread across their faces when Lucy yelled at them. Rin though he had just taken out the Vulcan, Natsu thought they had taken out some type of king vulcan. 

“That was a celestial spirit you boneheads”, she fumed, her shoulders trembling with anger. “Oh shit, she’s pissed”, Rin commented. Suddenly the giant ax swung out from behind them, barely enough warning for Natsu to jump up and Rin to flatten himself to the floor. Happy shrieked and flew out of the way while Kuro slashed at the monster in reflex to the attack. The Vulcan earned three slashes down his face from that and the shocked cat hissed on a big chunk of ice at the back of the room.

“Oh, there is the Vulcan we were fighting”, Natu’s commented landing right next to Rin who was low to the ground, tail out and ablaze along with his horns of fire visible on the top of his head meaning the small amount of power slipping through the sword was active and could still burn as hot as Rin wanted it to and it could do enough damage to defeat a weaker wizard, not one powerful. The sword was for that. He got up and stood by Natsu where the energies they had seemed to mingle to an ominous air. The vulcan smiled and jumped around, smelling the scene of battle growing stronger. 

“You tell us where our friend is you jerk”, Natsu said, his fist bursting into flames alongside Rin. “Don’t and we won’t have a problem frying you like tuna”, Rin took after him. The monkey only made primal noises and slammed his fists to the ground. “Me no friend, me want woman”. Lucy chucked a piece of ice at the beast, “Pervert”. “Do we need to repeat our statement”, the two said in unison. The vulcan began banging his fists on his chest and he chattered showing he wanted to fight and there was no more answers.

Rin immediately took  off and punched the Vulcan in the chest with a flaming blue fist that exploded in flames, engulfing the vulcan. The monkey screamed in pain, his eyes bulging out of his head in pain. The flames turned the creature’s white spots blue and licked over the dark spots. When the flames ceased, the Vulcan was a steaming mess. His fur was matted in a few places, there were bald spots. His white fur was now scorched and a smokey grey color and his eyes blazed with anger. The Vulcan roared and leaped at Rin who nimbly dodged the blow and slid a ways before stopping a wall gently. He had fought Grey enough times to get used to traveling on ice. The vulcan got up finding Rin missing from his cupped hands and he snarled at the demon. Rin’s tail flicked around his side as he leaned invitingly on a wall in the cave. The vulcan snorted angry of how the damn exported monster could be so calm around him, a mighty vulcan. Demon’s were slippery and sometimes disguised themselves as pretty women so they can trick him and play a prank. They didn’t even belong here, the days of no demons was a prosperous time for his kind, yes there was wizard problems, but they were no problem. Then those cursed demons came in and began helping the humans at times or took from the vulcans’ horde of food. 

“Fire dragon roar”, a voice yelled from behind him and he was blasted with fire, more fire. Fire was bad for mountain vulcans, it made fur to keep them warm go away.

The vulcan roared in rage, but wasn’t able to turn around before a flaming fist sent him flying into the back wall beyond Rin, who watched as the monkey made a crater of him upside down. His lips curled into a smile as he looked at the victory he and his brother had just achieved. Natsu landed right by his side where they high fived while looking at the defeated vulcan.

“Do you idiots remember that we were supposed to ask the monkey where your friend went”, Lucy yelled, holding Kuro who was having enough of being freaked out today, one almost dying and the other angering a monster. Oh that cat was soaking up Lucy’s embrace like a suck up, thought Happy. Oh well, she was too fat to hold the mighty Happy.

“Oh, we forgot”, the two said in unison again, the two wearing rather dumb looks on their faces. “Hey look”, Happy yelled pointing at the vulcan, or what used to be the vulcan. In its place was a very tall man in a white robe. His dark blue hair was slicked back to behind his head with a few strands flying loose. His pants were black and ending in long boots covering long legs. His face was tan and eyebrows scrunched in pain. “Oh my prince it’s Macao”, Kuro said in surprise, mouth open as if in shock.

 

“Come on Macao you can pull through this”, Natsu said to the man as they did their best to heal him, but none of them were very good at healing, but only doctors were good and the group was full of cats and clueless wizards. Lucy was doing her best to bandage up a burn on the fairly old man’s leg with some of her sleeve, but that had proven very hard to do. Kuro tried licking the man’s face and that brought out a stir, but nothing more. The man’s teeth were clenched as if he was having a nightmare. Rin’s tail lashed impatiently, they had been here more than thirty minutes, he hated staying still for that long without falling asleep. He did his best to cook up some mountain ingredients in the cave, his flames staying lit under the pot on a piece of ice that didn’t melt, but still made the pot boil. It was also good practice for controlling his fire, it had come in handy many times before. 

Demons began flitting through the stalagmites and stalactites, long snakelike creatures who preyed on bats and quartz crystals in granite. These ones were a dark blue and began taking anything that dripped from the ice. They rarely acknowledged humans’ existence, not even Rin’s most of the time except if they had some kind of animal or rock in hand. Happy didn’t count. 

“Wake up Macao, Romeo needs you. He misses you and wants you to come home now cut the crap and wake up”, Rin said harshly shaking Macao’s shoulder. His head only rolled to the side when Rin did that. “Rin, maybe shaking him is not the best idea. I’ve got an idea, how about you just stay put”, Lucy barked, annoyed at the half demon even though she knew he was horrible when it came to humans. The half demon slapped the ground with his tail and began pacing around his pot again. It was taking longer to boil then down below. Stupid altitude. 

“Rin is right Macao, Romeo needs you so don’t die on us or we will have to go down to the afterlife and drag you out”, Natsu stated to the sleeping man. This time it brought a reaction, a twitch in Macao’s eyebrow and a loud groan resonating from him as his body shifted. 

“Natsu”, he croaked, an eye cracking open a slight bit to adjust to the light that the cave took on from the outside and the blue fire that lit up the walls like a bunch of mirrors. Most of all to adjust to the two shadows leaning over him and the small black line flicking around his vision. Sure enough the light dissipated to the face of Natsu and some blonde chick with really short clothes and the line turned out to be a familiar black tail that belonged to a demon he knew well. Turning his head a bit he could see the cave, one he didn’t recognize, one made of ice and with little demons poking their head around the spikes to get a look at what some called the prince of Fiore, or in Macao’s case, a demon named Rin. By the way the tail was smacking against the floor and near his legs he could tell Rin was annoyed, most likely at the fire that illuminated the  entire cave other than the clouds. Something smelled delicious, like fish and vegetables and spices in a soup. Oh he got it, Rin was most likely annoyed at something about that, maybe the soup was freezing up or something.

“Yeah it’s me, he’s awake Rin, he is awake good”, Natsu stated, telling Rin the good news. The demon finally showed his face, wearing the same expression as his brother before going back to whatever he was making. “What’s with the blonde chick, I don’t remember her”, Macao stated, knowing Natsu and Rin wouldn’t just take in anyone especially since Rin is not a person that trusts anyone, he barely trusts the guild and everyone feared a slip up from the members that would finally get the demon to snap. That could end badly since he could command the demons to do whatever he wanted. Especially because he was the one who got people to accept the creatures. Not only that, but Natsu would follow him, they both were inseparable and would probably die together at the same time in the same deathbed. With both of them gone, there would be a huge effect on everyone, but it wasn’t like they would up and leave someday, but no slip ups was better than one. Well that was what the older people thought would happen, that was one of the rare things that differed him from Natsu, a rare thing he probably had before Natsu, if there was a time. No one knew much about Rin’s past, those two looked like they were never apart, plus they never spilled about their past beyond Igneel. The older guild members knew that Rin and Natsu weren’t real brothers and it was the biggest secret in the guild, who were those two and where did they come from?

“Her name is Lucy, she just joined the guild”, the pink haired boy said smiling like the goofball he was. He never looked suspicious, he was always the same Natsu, no one would know if he kept a secret, he and Rin were useful that way. “Well nice to meet you Lucy, I am Macao”, Macao said, shaking the blondes hand and pushing away the thoughts about what were inside the brothers’ head. “Well it was nice to meet you too”, She answered.

“Ugh, finally. Soups done. Natsu could you get the bowls, I think they are in the bag I took up here”.

 

Taps of boots echoed throughout the empty streets of Magnolia. Golden sunlight lit up the window panes as the sun went down. The tops of the houses and businesses glowed with that sunlight and cast long shadows over the port of the small town. On the hills or other spots, high above the streets, the bright sunset could be seen and the water looked like liquid gold. With lack of the sun the sky was turning other shades, green, purple, pink, orange. 

Romeo sat sobbing on a bin in an alley where little coal tar swirled around him, intrigued at what he was doing. Stupid little demons, why didn’t they just leave him alone right now. Why did they have to be so curious and not get the tip he was sad and didn’t need to hear them squeal and bounce away whenever another wave of shock wracked him. Usually it would be funny their squeaks sounded like little hiccups, but now it wasn’t. Only his father was funny. His father was not here, his father was most likely dead and it was all his fault.

Those bullies just wouldn’t leave him alone. They always insulted his father and insulted him. His father was the only parent he had, yeah he was a drunk, hung out with a bunch of lunatics and didn’t go on a lot of interesting jobs, but kept Romeo up unlike anyone else, that was not counting the twins. When he first met them, at the age of seven due to the fact his father was worried about some man in the guild who would be a bad influence on him, that man left after it became too rowdy in the guild even though he should have been kicked out. Then he met Natsu and Rin, the awesomest people in the guild. They were so proud, so funny, and amazing at fighting. At first sight of them Romeo couldn’t help, but idolize them and how powerful they were. 

Fire wizards ran in the family, it was an endless line and each son or daughter was inspired instantly by the wonderful dance of fire on a wizard’s fist. It wasn’t pushed upon the family, each wizard could do whatever they wanted to and the Conbolt family just had a natural liking to fire. Seeing that much power in two fire dragon slayers was no exception to inspiring. Romeo would sometimes sneak around to find Rin and Natsu fighting Gray in an extravagant dance of orange and blue with teamwork only one wizard can accomplish. Even when they fought each other is was the most beautiful and destructive flare of colors, a fight that was so fast it could have risen to the sky and keep rising till it reached the moon and set it ablaze with the two types of flames.

Even when the flames were out, Natsu and Rin could never pass by without drawing eyes. They had this aura to them, whenever they walked in the room it filled the room with a sense of everything Fairy Tail was for. It was the reason Romeo loved this guild and to him the reason why it was the best one. Those two could bring anyone out of a stupor just by looking at them and opening their mouths, or feeding them Rin’s food. That stuff was like it was from another world entirely, and his upbringing of the foreign dish to even him, Pizza. It was the most ridiculous name they could think of and the way Rin spelled it out in those strange symbols that meant some form of writing, he taught Romeo a few, but he said that language was a complicated language to learn and he only knew a few words, like ones of food and how to sound things out to spell them in that language form. Romeo also got to learn some of the places from where Rin came from like Japan, Italy, Africa, and America. Apparently no one knew this secret and what Rin’s life was like before was a very touchy subject. It got him all sad when he taught Romeo about those letters and places, it made Romeo sad.

Romeo sniffed, his congestion from sadness making it harder to breathe. The coal tar suddenly began bouncing a little bit more and backed away a bit, interest no longer on Romeo, but something coming up the streets. Usually nothing interests them, except for… “Romeo! Hey Romeo”, a familiar duet of male voices yelled out. Romeo’s heart jumped up with surprise and hope at those voices. He turned his head to see four people walking toward him, one leaning on the shoulders of two smaller people, and then the form of a girl striding towards him. He could recognize the shapes, the spikey hair, the swishing tail, the very short costume, and the slicked back hair of… “Dad”, Romeo cried and ran into his father, hearing the man laugh a grunt. “Hey Romeo, long time no see”.


	8. Invasion! Everloue Mansion

_ Author stands in the street buying magic clay in the simple colors. “Yeah yeah, thanks.” Puts coins in man’s hand. “Well it is time for another chapter. Hopefully this will do, now I am very buisy today, I found a kind of magic I am good at and it is a type of Maker. Not ice, I hate cold, but clay. Anyway, just remember, any person could be important so keep a keen mind on anyone you see here. They might be seen again.” Author walks off, bag over arm and nose in book. _

 

“You defeated nineteen of those things”, Elfman asked wide eyed at the Macao with his hair groomed back to normal. “Yeah, but the twentyith got me, but it was from behind and I was struggling and setting it on fire. Oh It screamed, but it jumped at me and almost knocked me off a cliff. I had no choice”, He bragged leaning back in his seat. There was a crowd of people watching him mesmerized. Nineteen was a big number when it came to mountain vulcans. They were strong and vicious creatures.

Rin had heard that story enough to have memorized every word and what spells he used at one time. Hearing it again hurt his head it was getting so annoying. Thankfully he had something to keep him distracted, a pan with grilling meat.

The boar flank sizzled and fried on the greasy pan with the herbs and carrots swimming in the oil. The pot was heavy iron and hissed under the steady blue flame Rin set under it and shifted the pot around so none of it would ever be dry. The smell of it filled the kitchen and there was a thin layer of steam covering the ceiling of the kitchen. Mira on the other hand was working on some dough and humming a festive song. The dough was white with little blue specks in it, covered by a thin layer of flour.

“When will it be done”, Natsu groaned from the table, waiting for his ordered meat to be cooked. He was stretched out on the table as if he was too hungry for his spine to keep him upright. His scarf went all over the table and his forehead was on the wood as if he had fallen there. Happy was at his side happily eating a fish he had brought from home. As if to taunt his friend, the cat hummed his approval with each slow bite of fish that fit in his mouth. Kuro on the other hand was happily sitting on Natsu’s back and looking over the counter as if spotting a toy. He kept his eyes on Rin’s tail that swished back and forth, taunting him, but ever demon knew not to touch another’s tail without approval. The tail was the most sensitive part of a demon.

“Just wait a moment Natsu, do you want to get food poisoning, I have to cook this right and that takes time”, Rin snapped at him, Flipping over the chunk of meat so the top could cook to match the bottom. Natsu whimpered and tried to give his brother the pathetic demon eyes that Rin gave him at times. He failed at it utterly at it, but didn’t know he did. Rin never told him about it so he wouldn’t  go to the other strategy of practicing his flame aim on his tail.

“Ok done”, Rin announced and flipped the chunk of meat on a plate along with most of the grease and carrots. Natsu liked it that way and Kuro liked to lick up the remains. Natsu looked up and spotted it coming towards him. When he was excited about food he looked like a starving demon that would jump at someone’s face and steal the food. Rin knew him, he wouldn’t do that.

The minute the meat touched the table it was in Natsu’s mouth where he devoured it like a big gator. Instead of cutting off chunks he tore them off and Rin swore he heard his brother growl. Natsu’s sharp dragon teeth were a flash of white and meat and munching noise for a while, until he stopped to chew for a second.

“Man, how come everything you make is this awesome”, Natsu said smiling up with a mouthful of steak, “The stuff in other places taste like coal compared to yours”. He gobbled down the rest of it and didn’t say a word since. Rin made something out of mushrooms and sat across from him eating up the seasoned blobs with as much gusto as Natsu.

“So we were going to make a plan about making Lucy come on that job with us. What is it”, Rin asked his brother.

Natsu sat back in the chair and stared off at the ceiling as if thinking really hard. Natsu always thought of the plans, even though they both had limited brain cells from getting their heads bumped all the time, Natsu was better at little schemes. Natsu had the fun cells, Rin had the social cells. Very few of them, but they were there. Just enough for Natsu to slip out of situation with enemies going “What the hell”. Then there were those crazy things he did that succeeded sometimes. Sometimes. Not that time when Natsu ate the lacrima “sometimes”.

“Let’s see. We offer Lucy to make a team with us, make her promise, hopefully she keeps them and then show her what is up. Do you think the maid thing will work”? Natsu said. Rin took the piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it to look at the description. “I guess. They do want pretty ladies”, Rin said. There was a pause as they both silently agreed

“She is very pretty, but is it worth it if she shows us a side we don’t like”, Rin asked. Natsu gave him a look of joking disgust, “Rin you got to learn to trust the guild more”. 

Rin scratched the back of his neck, “I do, I trust everyone, but she is new here and she has only been around for three days, a lot could be kept a secret. There has been an increase of nasty folks joining guilds these days. Plus we barely know her full name or where she came from. I guess that is my negitive brain talking, but I just don’t want it to happen again”.

Natsu stopped and looked at him clueless for a second, before he remembered. Rin had something horrible happen to him, people took him away and sentenced him to death for just existing. Everything good had been torn from him as he, a little kid, had to sit in a jail cell and rot for a while before ending up on that mountain in Fiore. He had another brother, a dad, and people who saw him as family. All of that taken because of people who were mistaken as civilians. People that could have gotten closer to him if they were suspicious. Something like that usually scared people for life, like Lisanna dying, or Makarov and his son. Natsu was the only one who knew Rin entirely, he was the only one Rin had talked to about it when he was young. He was the only one who knew Rin’s last name.

That name was like a diamond given to Natsu, and only Natsu. No one had ever seen its shine and luster, its sharp edges, its color. That name was what bound Rin to him it seemed. That name, Rin’s entire name was only shared with him, making their bond stronger. Being trusted with that name was as if Rin had given Natsu his life and the more people they met and the more places they went, that name burned brighter and brighter, even more secret than what the Magic council has stored in their vaults and buried under the strongest spells. And it was also a reminder that Rin had a bad past, a past that destroyed people, a past that affected his future and not even the great power built up in that name could fix it.

Lucy could have power built up in her name too, especially since, like Rin, the name was unknown to all. Her past is unknown, her family is unknown, and so many other things were unknown. She could be the secret daughter of a king or maybe some poor family. She could be a spy from any dark guild from the weak, almost disbanded Burn Brush to the powerful and unknown Tartarus. She could even be part of the wizard council. She was basically wearing a dark cloak to Rin, a dark cloak that could also hide an exorcist badge. Rin hated those secrets, but with all the people with unknown last names that had done good for the guild once, the demon could be a little more flexible

“What am I thinking, of course we can trust her. She is part of the guild now and what can she do to us if she turns bad. Nothing, there are two of us and one of her. Come on, this distrust is wasting time”, Rin said, getting up and beginning to walk.

Kuro made meowing sounds that would have been talking that only Rin could understand. Natsu blinked. That demon was strong. If Erza hadn’t kicked his ass plenty of times he thought he has surpassed her.

“Hurry up Natsu, you aren’t the one to hesitate”, He yelled over his shoulder and Natsu smiled. That was Rin alright, never looking back.

 

“You tricked me”, Lucy shouted at the two as they sat on their chairs holding out two pieces of paper strapped together, one being a job and the other a way to complete the job. The job offered a city ton of money that anyone would love to take it if it wasn’t about taking something from a man like that. It was something only the dumbest people in Fairy tail would do. Not Lucy.

Happy hovered over the food at where they met in the small town near the address of the requestor. They were on a balcony with a table at their side filled with food that Rin didn’t have to make himself. In the blue cat’s paws hung a  maid’s costume that showed off way too much skin. Everyone was smiling up at Lucy, the boy’s smug and the cat’s pleading. 

She glared at Happy and that face of his. She wanted to smack it. She wanted to kick all of them to the land of the fairies for tricking her. She promised to be in their team. How dare they, those tricky little demons. 

“Alright, but I get fifty percent if I do this”, Lucy commanded , giving them a stern look and leaning on one leg so she looked a little tilted. She could really be terrifying and that side was what the group was looking at now, a girl who could turn into Erza at any second. 

“Alright, but you have to put this on or you don’t even get a fish bone”, Happy said smiling and thrust the costume upon her before going over to his food and chowing down on a big juicy fish. The others followed his lead like hungry birds. Lucy stood there exasperated as she watched the cats eat fairly peacefully while the dragon slayers fought over a piece of meat like wolves. She felt her eyebrow twitch and her mouth hung open, knowing they wouldn’t even leave a scrap behind for her. Mostly she was surprised they ate half a pig that fast, maybe they made a new kind of magic that made you eat faster. Rin grabbed another type of food having lost to Natsu who sat up like a dignant dog chewing the piece in his mouth with a victorious gleam in his carnivorous eyes. Kuro on the other hand was peacefully lapping up some cream with tuna chunks in it. Happy only at the fish and Rin hissed as he thought Happy was reaching for the roll across the way.

“Yup, this is what I signed up for, but I promised and as a Celestial wizard I keep my promises”, she said to herself. When no one answered she whined and went to find the restroom.

 

“Well how do I look”, Lucy asked again. This time she wore a black and white frilly maid’s uniform. It was way shorter than expected, but there that was perfectly fine with anyone these days. It gave them a piece of eye candy and the girls thought it was totally normal and allowed more fighting and movement for them. Really men would kill to wear that kind of things, only the ones they made never fit men right. They had to be magiced on someone and not a lot of people had that kind of perfect fit magic. 

A wizard across from then suddenly burst into a nose bleed and ran away with his piece of chicken and long staff with a lacrama on the end, a young man, seven years younger than the dragon slayers.

“Well that was strange, but Yeah that will do”, Rin said, ignoring his brother’s knee taps for attention, most likely to comment since Natsu can’t keep his comments to himself. Really Rin already knew what he was going to ask, he didn’t need to hear Natsu’s words so he flicked his tail against his ears to let the guy know they shared the same though.

 

The next twenty minutes they were in front of the house looking up at a big iron gate. Well at least Lucy was. Natsu and Happy were hiding in a bush, Rin and Kuro were in a tree, all watching in exciting uncertainty. Lucy hesitated for a second, she was unsure as they were and she was gathering her acting skills. The boys hoped she had some because they sure didn’t. 

Lucy finally gathered it up and knocked on the gate which was tall and simple with straight poles and the usual arch. There was no special symbol or anything twisting through it, just simplicity and that was what made that gate majestic. It didn’t open, no one came out of the house, the place looked empty. Then a little fat blonde man with a mustache jumped out of the dirt. He had a fancy suit on with a tailcoat and striped pants. His face was fat, short and squashed with a few wrinkles in it, but just enough to make him look really ugly. There was a mustache coming out of his nose and his hair at closer inspection was only fake, he was as bald as a ball, but the hair made it worse.

“Well, well, well what do we have here”, he spoke. Hearing that voice made Rin want to go to hell, it sounded worse than a broken violin played by a tree branch while the person playing it was on fire. Mmm, fire. “Uh hi, I am here for the maid job. You have a request for a maid right here”. Lucy gave her best pretty look, bending down, and widening her eyes in the innocent angel way and there might have been wings popping out of her back and fluttering around like a cherub.The man felt his mustache lovingly, “Well the flyer asks for pretty women”. 

Lucy’s cute look disappeared and she was just standing there looking shocked like as if electrocuted while trying to do the cute thing. Suddenly the ground rumbled and four women came out, all so ugly the boy’s bet their mother died trying to fit their strange limbs out of her body. Either that or she exploded. The first had black hair in braids and her face looked like her head had been blown up and elongated into a stretched monstrosity that was so wrinkled her eyes didn’t even open. 

The next had a round football face with a mustache just like his only not curled. She was really short with tiny baby limbs and misshapen eyes. She had a pig nose and two buck teeth that reminded them of a beaver .Then there was one that looked like her mouth was like a monkey’s and ended in a dip in her face. She had fat legs, fat hands and little body the rest of the way. Last was a fat one with short hair and a lip that curled into an ugly nose.

The last on the other hand took the cake of ugly, her face bunched up with fat, her breasts barely fitting inside her uniform. She had a big nose, mean eyes, two innocent pigtails, and the rest of her was gigantic like a large fat gorilla. 

Natsu and Rin both looked at each other in fear, one thing they both hated was behemoths and this one was one. Kuro curled up on the branch he stood on in fear for he had a bad time with behemoths once that didn’t end well for the poor cat. 

“Now these are pretty woman. Do you see the beauty in them”.

“Yeah you ain’t pretty”, the long faced one said. Lucy looked like she was stabbed by a sign saying “rejected”.“Maybe you can come back when you are”, said the football headed one. Lucy sagged a little more as if another one had landed right next to the previous saying “ugly”. 

The pink haired giant scooped her up like a little maid voodoo doll with no love in her eyes. Lucy looked shocked to the point where she no longer had a soul to run her body and she made a high whining sound through her half open, smiling mouth. After a few more comments from the girls and the man, the behemoth pulled her back like a spear and tossed her so far, the boys bet she would have landed in the next town over. Rin watched from the treetops to see which direction she went and saw her land with a bang into a mountain. He could see the crater from here. Well that failed, time for plan B, after they got Lucy. 

The fat man didn’t even notice as two demons, a cat and a kid went running off towards the mountain.

 

“Isn’t there another way? I don’t want to break into some guy’s house, especially his. Even though I want to skin him alive and show him what real beauty is. I mean really, did you see those women. They called me ugly, look at them, I don’t even think they are human, that one looks like her mother was a vulcan, not to mention the rest, they all look like something that came out of the jungle being mixed with so many different animals that there is no way to tell if they weren’t made by new breeds”, She drawled.

“Yeah we know, it wasn’t as if we couldn’t see Lucy, but remember that is not what we are here for. That book is what we need. Whatever it is. Daybreak? I wonder if the book is hiding a secret that bad or why this guy has it”, Rin said. Natsu was burning a hole in the window and looked extremely focused, for the first time in his life.

“Ok, got it”, he finally announced and a huge hole of glass broke free and fell with a clatter on the floor on the other side. “How come it didn’t break”? Rin asked poking his head through the hole to see the thick uneven circle safely on the ground. Natsu scratched the back of his neck, “well it was a thick piece of glass, most likely  to keep out intruders, but not thick enough to stop the most powerful team in Fairy tail”. The two high fived and Lucy rolled her eyes. The boys were giving themselves too much credit. All they did was make a hole in thick glass, not do anything very significant.

“Now we must do it quietly ok, no blowing things up along the way”, Lucy said once inside the building, with the boys following suit. They didn’t listen, they only began talking about what they would do with the money they would earn and stuff to do with fire. What dimwits, don’t they know this is a serious mission. Wait, it didn’t have to be that serious.

The room was large, able to hold enough people in a guild or maybe more. The tile was the usual black and white checkerboard while the ceiling was majestic green squares lined with gold and rubies. The place had two floors, one floor winding around the main room like a walkway at a zoo, while the second floor was complete with statues and photographs of Duke Everlue. The biggest piece there was a solid gold statue of the man himself, but only as a strong and mighty, handsome hero. A cape fluttered by his fat ankles and one of his ugly feet rested on a rock as he held up a huge lacrima crystal that thankfully wasn’t active with magic. If it was the wizards could have sensed it. Yes there was a little magic, made by a weak wizard and that was enough to just let the thing glow. None of that power could ever be released since there was so little of it there, but broken it would only let out a few sparks. The man was smiling, his mustache bigger than in real life. He looked like he saved the lives of thousands and was priding himself for it.

“Hey guys, let’s be ninjas”, Lucy said. The boys stopped their gabbering and looked at her with interested eyes. “Yeah let’s be quiet, like ninjas, but we can’t make any noise or it will blow our ninja cover. Ok”?

Oh that was a bad idea. The boy’s smiles grew as wide as one of a pervy hobgoblin who caught sight of the next door neighbor changing and their blue and black eyes held mischief and excitement. Then Rin pulled up his shirt over his nose and Natsu wrapped his scarf around his face. They sure didn’t look like ninjas, more like blue, black, and gold clowns with cat sidekicks. 

“We are ninjas”, they announced in unison, loudly. They put their hands up in a chopping motion and they were bent down a little bit in a ninja stance, usually meant for balanced. They looked like absolute losers, but they looked happy about it, really determined to be good ninjas. Only one problem, they were noisy. The cats were playing along too, being noisier than both of them with Happy’s high voice and Kuro’s meowing. Lucy couldn’t make sense of the sounds, but Rin seemed to understand it.

“Aren’t ninjas supposed to be quiet since they don’t want to arouse anyone”? Lucy hissed at them, but by then it was already too late. There was a huge crack and four holes appeared in the floor, launching out the four ugly maids with dangerous looking broomsticks. They all looked determined to defend the household and the man in there no matter the costs. Well too bad, the guy was a jerk and that book has something to do with their client.

“Ninjas, we have been spotted”, Happy said in his best ninja voice, though it sounded fake. “Agreed fellow ninja, lets take them out with our ninja moves”, Rin announced, grabbing the hilt of his sword. Sure these women could be taken out with one shot of a roar, but he had a katana. That was a ninja weapon, why not use it? As soon as the top came off blue flames burst all around him with one uncontrollable burst and then settled down to only the sword, the tops of Rin’s head, and the end of his tail. Natsu jumped into a classic ninja readying position and lit his fingertips on fire. “I will be backup, you take them out Rin”, Natsu hissed beneath his scarf and the demon nodded. All four of the ladies ran at the blue demon broom raised. Rin with one swipe of his sword sent a wave of blue flames that knocked them to the opposite walls screaming for their lives. Another hole opened up in the floor behind them and the gorilla emerged from it coming for Kuro in the back.

The small black cat slowly turned around to see his worst nightmare coming straight for him and all he could do was freeze and raise his back. All seemed doomed for him, he was too scared to transform to defend himself. Then Natsu, using a flaming dragon claw kicked her in the face and elegantly swirled to the floor, landing with one hand on the floor, one foot on the floor and the other leg slid off to the side. He and Rin backed to each other with both their hands up and fingers together, both saying , “We cannot let ourselves be discovered. We are ninja”.

“Don’t you two know ninjas are supposed to be quiet”, Lucy asked, but the two ignored her and continued walking towards a large door most likely meant for that Virgo lady. 

“Do you guys think this is it”, Lucy asked. No response, the boys behind her were trying out ninja moves quietly with their hands still together in those stupid ninja poses. “Nevermind”, she sighed and opened the door which creaked as it opened inward. To her relief it was the library, a big one at that. It was a circular with dark oak book shelves lined with a lot of hard back volumes of greatest size and quality. In the center was a desk, clean at the second with a single unlit lamp since the sunlight through the window ceiling was enough to light up every corner of the room.

“This library has many books”, Natsu commented in his ninja voice with Rin next to him in the same pose as he. At least they were quiet now, hopefully not too much attention had been drawn to them, maybe the duke was out. “Indeed”, Happy commented trying to do the ninja thing like the other two. Kuro didn’t  bother being in too much shock to join the fun.

“How are we ever going to find the book in this place. This guy doesn’t look it, but he must be a major book worm to have all of these”, Lucy commented, not watching as the boys jumped happily into action at looking at books. 

 

“It is going to take us a century to find it”, Lucy groaned. She was on a fancy book seeking ladder looking at  “how to cure hatred” and “It is not possible to become happy”. Most of the books in the library were depressing with only a few adventure books in the mix of depressing stories and stuff about hatred.

The boys downstairs were not doing much themselves, only playing around with certain books. A while ago Rin was making an impersonation of a poet that Natsu, Happy, and Kuro found amusing leading to Natsu taking books and trying to fly off the ground. Now they were taking out books big and small looking at the covers.

“Hey Natsu look how small this one is, it can fit in the palm of my hand”, Rin shouted holding a tiny, fat book bound in grass. “This one has a grumpy guy on it”, Natsu said showing Rin a book with a grumpy looking  character at the top. Happy was impersonating the guy which made Rin laugh. “This one has lots of pictures”, Rin said, showing off the colorful area on the pages.

“Check out this one its sparkly”, Natsu said happily holding up a sparkling book made of gold. The cats laughed and jumped around by the way Natsu said it. “Would you four get serious”! Lucy shouted. The two dragon slayers looked up at her dubiously, Natsu holding the book with a sunrise painted on it. 

“Wait that is what we were looking for. Its ‘Daybreak’”, Lucy said. “We have been here that long already”? “No the book you stupid cat”. “Wow you found it Natsu. That is so cool”, Rin commented. “I found it”? “Two million jewel here we come”. 

“Alright lets burn it up”, Natsu said, flames igniting in one hand. “Wait stop”, Lucy shouted and snatched the book out of Natsu’s hand, “I didn’t know it was written by Kamu Zaleom”. “Zale-what”, the dragon slayers asked in unison staring stupidly at Lucy. “You guys haven’t heard of Zaleom? He is an awesome wizard and a fantastic novelist, I am such a huge fan. I was certain I have read all of his work, but I guess this is an unpublished novel”, Lucy raved happily. “Who cares it all burns the same to me”. 

“Oh no you don’t. This is a priceless work of literature and I won’t let you touch it you pyro freaks”. “Calm down Lucy it is our job”, Rin commented. “Failure is not an option”, Happy said. 

Lucy began backing up and pleading, “please let me just read it please and say we burned it. I can keep it a secret I swear”. “We aren’t liars”, Rin said with a flame in his hand just like Natsu. “Aye”.

“Well well well, what do we have here”? A mysterious voice purred from all around. Rin seemed to wince as if the voice hurt his ears and he covered them. Suddenly the ground burst all around them and the ugly fat man came twirling out of it. “You are trying to pilfer “Daybreak” from me are you?oy oy oy”.

Natsu turned to Lucy annoyed, “See slowpoke, he caught us”. “It was so easy, just burn the book, but nooo. It is so important to get us in trouble”, Rin said after, tail swishing angrily around the floor.

“I knew some lowlives were trying to take something of mine, just never expected it to be that stupid thing”.”Stupid”, the two repeated.

“Hey if it is so stupid than I can keep it”? “No it is mine you incompetent peasant”, The duke yelled like a bratty child. “Greedy gut”, Lucy whispered. The guy picked his nose and said, “Shut your trap ugly”. “Lucy just hand over the book and let brother burn it. Please”, Rin asked. “No way”. 

“Lucy this is our job”, Natsu growled. “Well at least let me read it first”, She said and sat down on the ground. “READ IT”, Everyone asked in shock, even Everloue.

“That’s enough, get your filthy hands off my possessions”. “Oh cut the crap”, The twin dragon slayers yelled at Everloue. “Fine, but it is your choice. Come out Vanish Brothers”.

A door in the library opened revealing two people. One with white on and little letters on his face, his head bald, but a long braid coming out of the back and a dark armband with a white fox on it with a swirling S. The other was larger and had propeller hair, a headband, sunken eyes, and a white armband with a the same guild symbol. One of them had a giant frying pan. “It’s a mercenary guild called the southern wolves”, Kuro growled. Rin translated so the others could hear.

Lucy whispered to herself in the corner. “I am always one step ahead in the game and if you think you won well say your prayers”. Lucy got up and looked at the two dragon slayers, “Can one of you hold him off, I think there is some kind of secret in this book. I need someone to say with me while I figure it out. Rin follow me”. “Rin looked at her in shock before she grabbed his arm and pulled him into another room. Natsu watched as the fat man, looking livid, followed them, leaving him to take care of the idiots, “Make sure he doesn’t run away in one piece”, he called to his guards.

There was no time for strategy, the two men jumped at him and he only had time to jump up, using his fire to propel him in the air. “So you are a fire wizard? Our specialty”. Natsu leapt of a wall and tried to punch the iron pan one of them was holding to no avail. The pan was swung at him and he used the momentum to help him jump back. As soon as his sandals touched the floor, one of them kicked at him and backed up again so his buddy could take a swing. Natsu was flung into the other room and crashed into the gold statue of duke Everloue. 

“Man it would sure be quicker if Rin were here to help, but I can take them”, he whispered to himself. “We know magic guilds are fun and all, but you will never be as well trained as us mercenaries”.

Natsu smiled and growled, “Well you are dead wrong”. 

“This brat thinks he can beat us”, said propeller hair, he looked angry. “Tell me, do you know what a wizard’s greatest weakness is”? “MOTION SICKNESS”, Natsu yelled, terrified, his hair standing up. “Uh, well… no”. “Is he making fun of us”?

“Their weakness is… Their bodies”. The men jumped down and struck at Natsu who jumped out of the way and landed on the floor. 

“Since wizards focus on only their mental abilities”... The other one punched at Natsu and missed, “They forget to train their bodies…. Which leaves them physically weak. “We focus on our physical abilities”, “So we have more power and speed than you”.

“Oh yeah bring it on”, Natsu shouted, watching one of them step onto the pan and get launched in the air. 

“If you focus on above”, the braided one said, “We attack from the earth”. Natsu barely avoided being turned into a pancake. “And when you focus on the earth”, he said again. “We attack from above”, said the other one, bringing his foot down on Natsu’s face”.

Natsu went into the wall raising a cloud of dust. “Very few survive that technique”, The bigger one said. “That was the heaven and earth technique.

They gasped in horror as Natsu stood up looking bored, “I guess I am one of the few”. “NO WAY”, they said in unison. Natsu blasted them with a roar attack which was blocked by the pan which turned red hot. “My pan takes your flames and doubles the power that I sent right back at yaz”.

Natsu didn’t move till there was a huge explotion where he once was and the two brothers looked pleased with themselves, “I call that one a cooked fairy”. Natsu sucked a deep breath, taking in all of the fire and hunched over, feeling the warmth in his innards and the strange taste of frying pan flames. The brothers looked horrified and hugged each other in fear. “Oh yeah now I got some fire in my belly”. “Let me show you somethin”. Natsu jumped in the air and yelled, “fire dragon wing attack”. The mansion windows exploded and a giant puff of smoke billowed all over, scorching the entire mansion and melting the gold off in an instance. 

“Uh oh did I over do it again”? Natsu asked, looking at the cooked men laying shocked on the ground. 


	9. Duke Everlue's Mansion

_ (Author is in the back of the Fairy tail guild hall, molding clay into a gold lizard with wings and big teeth. No one notices and moves on with drinking, laughing, and dancing. Makarov is on the counter meditating and Mirajane is talking with her brother. The author smiles) Hi there. Sorry I haven't been posting in a while. Got some writer's block and my sister used my mother's computer a lot. I finally got back to it today and finished it after a while. I know I am in the guild now, but I won't be a major part of the story. I will be like that guy back there that jumps around like a monkey which is apparently dancing. I might have a few lines, but you will only hear me speak once or twice, but not in this chapter. We are finishing off the Duke Everlue thing so that's out of the way. Can't wait for one of the arcs to come around because writing about these little things is giving me writers block and loss of hope to getting what I have planned for the future. _

“Damn it”, Rin yelled in frustration. The guy just kept disappearing into the ground and popping up again somewhere else and the sound of his digging echoed so it was hard to pinpoint where he went. 

He popped up in another corner from the ceiling a few feet from the demon, on fire with the sword in his hand. Rin growled at the man and his big mouth filled with Molars that must have belonged to a vulcan once and was placed in his ugly mug. “Why are you fighting,  just tell me the secret and you can go free from here. Is it a treasure map. Kamu Zaleom’s fortune hiding spot”? He asked and disappeared when Rin punched the ceiling and missed. 

He landed on the cobbly path thankfully and at the corner of his eye Happy was happily swimming around in the disgusting smelling water. “You will never learn the secret, But I can say it is about you and what you did to him. You blackmailed him into writing this book about a trashy man named Duke Everloue”. 

The duke disappeared into another hole and his voice echoed around the entire place. “That is true. I threatened to take his citizenship away along with those of his family and progeny”.

“What”! Rin yelled in disbelief, “You can do that”! “I can do anything little demon”, He yelled from below and popped up underneath Rin, startling him into jumping ten feet away with a yelp of surprise. 

“Yeah but that means he can’t join a guild or get a job. That means that he can’t live here or anywhere. You are a monster. He would never have given in to you”.

Rin felt the ground shake and the Duke, once again  popped out surprising the demon once again.

“I was surprised I had to”, the Duke said swimming in the path he was magically drilling through underneath his belly, “Every author would beg for the honor to use me as a muse, but he had the audacity to say no”. The fat troll dove once again beneath the surface his little shoes being the last thing in sight. Rin lept at the hole and roared in it and only a few licks of flame came out of other tunnels, unfortunately not stopping the drilling sound. The duke popped up again unharmed and not even smelling of smoke in the least bit. Rin growled and lashed his tail in annoyance. “Even more I put him into a dungeon so he wouldn’t run away or anything, letting him stay there for three years”.

Rin’s breath caught in his throat along with what felt like fire. Three years… That guy was stuck in a dungeon for three years… and the only thing he could do was write about this guy. Rin hated writing, period, but writing about this guy… in a dungeon...Away from his family and friends...He would have killed himself before the first year had even reached the half point. He couldn’t probably last an hour due to his petrifying fear of dungeons or places that were supposed to trap in. He would most likely die of the fear in less than a day. How could that guy have lasted three years of THAT! Rin wanted to puke.

“How could you do that to someone. That is torture”, Lucy yelled, snapping Rin out of his stupor and back to action. During that time Rin’s tail drooped and his sword was at his side drooping to the ground, his flamed dulling to almost nothing.

“Well I got away with it, and away with that book and it belongs to me so give it back and tell me the secret. It is my property and I deserve to know its contents”. 

Rin sliced the air in an X with Kudikara the sword and two arcs of blue flame came straight for the Duke. Everloue dove down into his hole and disappeared to the demon’s annoyance. “You will never learn the secret Everloue, it has nothing to do with you. This is way too great for you”, Lucy clutched the book somehow even harder, but pulled out a gold key, the one the boys saw at her house.

“Open Gate of the Giant Crab. Cancer”, She yelled and a familiar bell sound rang out along with a burst, meaning a celestial spirit was coming. Standing where there was once nothing was a dark skinned man with cool sunglasses. His hair was cornrowed and ending with two red coral looking side tails. He wore a blue suit, a gentle blue like the ocean and a gold necklace. There were also crab legs coming out of his back that could flex and bend. Two scissors popped into view and landed in his hands. They were also red with crab shell grip.

“A giant crab”. “Wow he is so cool”, Rin said in shock, tail drooping a bit in respect and admiration to the intense awesomeness that radiated from this person. It wasn’t intense awesomeness like a god, but close, like the people who immediately gather the eyes of girls and made them swoon.

“Oh so you are a celestial wizard eh. Well I guess I have a challenge on my hands. Let’s see how your spirit goes against mine”, the Duke purred, pulling out a golden key. Lucy gasped in horror. “Open gate of the maiden. Virgo”!

The fat pink haired gorilla drilled down beneath the floor, coming in with a crash. Rock and dirt flew everywhere and Rin raised an arm over his eyes to not get dirt in them. When the dust cleared there was clearly something hanging off her fat neck that she barely registered. Her glowing eyes were set on Cancer, but the thing with a white scarf clung on.

“Wait a second. NATSU”! Lucy yelled. Sure enough there was Natsu, smiling and waving down from the giant spirit’s torn dress. Duke Everlue stopped breathing in shock. 

“You rode on Virgo down here? Are you crazy. You know that could have killed you”! The Duke roared in anger at the clueless dragon slayer hanging off of the gorilla. Natsu just blinked in confusion.

“Whatever. Virgo get rid of her”, The duke commanded.

“Not on my watch”, Rin said, hurtling at her from where he was standing a second ago. Before the Duke could even register what the demon was planning, like a fireball the demon slammed into Virgo. Knocking her backward with and “Oof”. Before she hit the ground Natsu leaped in the air and turned around so he was facing Virgo.

“Ready, Natsu”, Rin yelled from where he had headbutted the giant woman. 

“Sure as hell I am. Fire Dragon Iron fist”, the pink haired dragon slayer yelled. His fist burst into gold and orange flames and gravity pulled him down to Virgo’s face, where the fist met fat. Cracks formed around the body  and eventually gave way. Rin jumped away in time to watch Virgo tumble into another layer of sewer below and splash into that water.

It didn’t take long for her to sink and Cancer was still standing, his scissors snapping while Duke Everlue lay on the floor, passed out, and completely bald down to his mustaches. Rin smiled and jumped in the air, his tail lashing under him, his sword in the air with his fist.

“We won. Four million Jewel here we come”, he shouted as he landed, laughing out loud. Natsu looked determined and there was a sideways smile, one corner of his mouth wider than the other to show off his dragon fangs. Suddenly there was a crash and a spray of air as one of the walls gave out. Lucy’s skirts blew in it as she covered her face, Happy was blown back into the sewer with a small scream. The flames making up Rin’s tail and horns blew back as well as on the sword which glowed through the rubble.

It cleared, but the earth shook tremendously, rubble falling all over the place. The river of filth took most of the falling rocks with a large splash of white. Outside the building was sinking into the earth in clouds of dust. Cracks appeared all over the foundation of the building, spreading down to the gardens and roof. The already cracked windows blew apart and shattered. In the city people pointed to the loud sound and clouds of dust. Then the entire building disappeared in a flash, some of the small towers falling like trees on a collapsing mountain. 

 

“Well that kind of sucked”, Lucy groaned, walking with the boys through the forest on a small path made by hikers before them. She was grumpily kicking the dirt and rocks under her boots, moping and sighing throughout the walk. It was dark outside and the mass of stars above them were twinkling without the moon in sight that brought enough light to see the path in front of them. There wasn’t much grass left from grazing demonic goats that herders moved to market through the woods with intentions of selling their milk that was believed to help with acne.

“It wasn’t that bad Lucy. Plus that guy couldn’t pay us Four million Jewel. He didn’t even own that house, just renting it. Plus making him pay would just be cruel. No one needs to pay to be happy, it would ruin everything”, Natsu said, walking a ways ahead, his hands behind his head and he was looking at the stars and the demons flying across that blocked it.

“It’s not that. I don’t really care about that anymore, it is just… We destroyed someone's mansion, that would get us in big trouble. I have only been in this guild for a few days, I don’t want to be kicked out for destroying the place”, Lucy sulked, kicking a rock away.

“Pff. Relax Lucy”, Rin’s voice came above the trees. He landed on a branch in her view, his tail lashing to keep his balance and curling underneath the branch that had sunk under the demon’s weight. His sword was sheathed and even though he had a scrape on his face and was absolutely covered in dust he was fine. He had been jumping from branch to branch their entire trek. He seemed to like acting like a total wild animal, jumping around in the trees in the dead of night. “Destroying things is Fairy Tail’s thing if you know what I mean. It makes up most of our members so it’s alright, plus it was that guy Everlue’s fault. He drilled all those holes under the foundation and messed with us. So we won’t get in trouble anyway”. Then he jumped off the branch into the trees again, out of sight completely. Lucy huffed at him. Couldn’t he just walk normally. With his hopping around she could never tell if someone was trying to attack. Especially with him switching sides all the time.

“I guess, but did we really have to walk. If we took the train or a carriage it would have been easier”, she whined, tired of kicking. She wanted to go home and take a bath, but it would still take hours to trek all the way to Magnolia.

“Ha are you nuts”, Rin yelled from the opposite side than before, shocking Lucy out of her stupor.

“Yeah those trains are awful, plus walking is more fun”, Natsu said, ignoring the fact that Rin was in a new side every few seconds, like that cat in a famous novel  who teleported and had a creepy smile. “Sachi in Paradise” was its name, but it wasn’t paradise, more like hell and heaven turned upside down.

There was no winning an argument with the two. They walked for awhile more before glowing blue eyes popped out of the leaves and suddenly an angry Rin popped out and tackled a bush like a cat. There was a protest and a few hits flown.

“Rin”, Lucy yelled and out rolled the obvious Rin with his blue eyes and flaming fists and.

“Grey? What the heck are you doing here”, Natsu growled in disbelief.

“Yeah with my brains I would say you were stalking us”, Rin growled, tail lashing angrily, fist in the air and eyes flashing like his fire, making him look like an animal of some sort.

“Well then you mustn’t have any brains. I was just walking back from a job and went to take a pee to be pounced on by this looser. Now would you get off of me”? Grey shouted and tried to punch the demon. Rin growled and punched him in the face.

“That’s enough, Rin get off of him please”? Lucy said to the demon who glared at her and got off, tail still swishing angrily behind him. Grey got up steadily, a bit of a burn on his cheek that was healing from Rin’s fist. He brushed the dirt off his shirt and glared at Rin who growled back threateningly.

“So what are you doing here anyway”? Natsu growled, glaring at Grey. He glared back.

“I told you I am coming home from a mission”, he stated coldly, watching the two angry fire breathers as if they might attack again.

“Then why are you walking back? You know you can take the train right”? Lucy asked, ignoring her growling alliances.   

“I don’t have the money yet alright jeeze”.

 

After a lot of talking the boys finally calmed down enough and with a lot of whining from Lucy they set up camp, grabbing a bunch of fish from the river nearby. The fire was lit, Grey had his clothes off as usual and ate only a little. Happy, Natsu, and Rin were eating as much as they could, hissing like lizards fighting over a carcass. Kuro watched the carnage while chewing on what he managed to get out of the mess. Lucy was laughing.

“So Erza’s coming back”, Happy asked Grey as he sat in the firelight cooly.

“Yeah she’s finished that S class quest already and will be coming back tomorrow apparently. It is best we be on our best behavior. I am looking at you two Burned Brains”.

Rin snorted in response and shoved an entire mackerel in his mouth, and grabbing another while Natsu was eating two at a time, Happy was happily munching on his and watching the conversation.

“So who is Erza anyway. I heard of her from Sorcerer Weekly, but they never show pictures of her. What is she like”? Lucy asked

“She is so scary”, the two dragon slayers said in sacred Unison, Rin ducked his head and Natsu looked plain serious.

“She is so powerful she can kick over three mountains”, Happy put in. Lucy imagined a giant woman with giant horns kicking a mountain apart.

“That is a bit over the top. I would say at least one mountain”, Grey put in.

“No at least two”, Natsu put in, his brother didn’t speak, but whined in agreement.

“Who cares. Even just kicking over one mountain is scary in my book”, Lucy said.

“Boy I am beat”, the dragonslayers said in harmony after a while, flopping down off of the logs they were on.

“Yeah it is pretty late, we need to get up bright and early tomorrow if we want to get back in time to see Erza”, Grey said laying down on the ground under his shirt. Lucy hummed in agreement and sighed. Looking at the stars and falling to sleep.


	10. Erza Scarlet

_Hey Whats up everyone. Sorry this chapter took forever It was a pain in the tail end to write because my mind is quite the wanderer. Well here it is, sorry it isn't that good, but I am struggling to find the words._

“Rin. RIN! WAKE UP”, Natsu was yelling at his sleeping brother. Rin didn’t move or make any sign of getting up, it was almost like he was dead. Natsu grabbed him by the collar and began violently shaking him, but not even that worked.

“Is he always this hard to wake up”? Lucy asked, panicked. The fire of last night went out and was just a smoking pile of ash. The sun was up and the sky was blue, but the lack of heat meant it was still morning, not sunrise, but still morning. This however was later than Rin’s wake up time which if there was a clock around, would be nine thirty. Grey was awake too looking in the bushes and calling out Happy and Kuro’s names. Rin was the only thing not awake.

“Yup. That is normal for Rin. He is almost impossible to wake up when we need him. Even so it is hard to wake him up any time”, Grey said. Natsu was now trying to smack him awake, but Rin just lay limp.

“We don’t have time for this now Rin. We got to find Happy and Kuro. They were kidnapped”, Natsu yelled. “Kuro”, Rin said, sitting up like he had been awake for hours. He blinked at everyone, looking for his friend to find he was gone.

“Ah! They have been kidnapped”, he yelled and shot up, tearing across the forest in a random direction.

“Get back here you loser”, Grey yelled, but then there was the sound of men getting attacked by a mad, rogue, half demon. There was the sound of spells as well, sand blew through the trees as well as the prominent blue flames Rin used, blasting around the leaves, but for some reason not burning them.

“Rin. Wait for me”! Natsu yelled and followed him. Orange entered with blue and then the flames burned the leaves and more fighting started.

“Oh well better join them”, Grey said, running towards the fighting with Lucy not far behind. The men were in a clearing on a cliff looking out on the rolling hills and huge forest that lived on those hills. There were several mountains nearby with demons flying around peacefully, circling the trees to catch prey. They were large demons with long wings made for soaring and you could see them fold their wings back, dive down into a tree and come back up with something struggling in their talons, another demon maybe or sometimes a rabbit or boar. The clearing was bare of grass as if there had been a lot of walking. In the center was a little cooking station made of sticks with one blue cat hanging from it. The black one was now fighting, grown to full size with the ropes still around his paws as he fought with the two dragon slayers. He sent a trollish looking guy flying into a tree. His buddy then attacked the cat, but was blocked off by a very angry teen with flaming blue fist. Natsu was fighting a large man who had a comb like a rooster, but was smooth as an egg with a strange triangular mouth. The thing wore overalls and used a giant stick to block the dragon slayer’s fire. Grey was dealing with some guy with a glowing crystal ball blasting magic.

“Lucy. Please help me out here”, Happy cried out as Lucy ran up to untie him. She didn’t bother summoning a spirit since it was an easy task. Within minutes the blue cat was yawning and stretching, complaining about the kidnappers treated him. “Hey”! They heard Natsu protest. Lucy turned around to find the cats’ kidnappers had disappeared as if in thin air. There was a dark shadow flying away that Natsu and Rin were yelling curses at in unison, little bursts of flames coming out their mouths through their yelling. Grey was standing straight with his clothes off again staring at the shadow and ignoring the two. Kuro half roared half meowed at the shadow angrily in full size. “What happened”? Lucy asked.

“They got away”, Grey said simply and began walking away. Rin followed as well as Natsu who’s mouth was smoking in anger. Happy spread his wings and began following the three. Lucy stood there for a second, feeling like something was going to happen and it didn’t look good. Who were those guys? What did they want with Happy and Kuro. “Hurry up Lucy, we have to get back at the guild before Erza gets to the guild before us”, Grey called out. Lucy was sitting at the counter watching Rin cook a panful of pancakes and eggs. The food sizzled and crackled in the pan, the bacon curling and the eggs turning from clear to white with a perfectly round form. When he had flipped them he went to the pancakes made from his own recipe and flipped those. Lucy could see them, perfectly golden with white sides and they smelled sweet. Natsu was happily gobbling down food that Rin had made him a while before, usually small portions, but Natsu ate them slower than the rest. Lucy wondered why, but after a while Natsu looked full and content even though there was still food left. Grey had got a piece of pastry bread Rin took out of the oven. He didn’t say a word, but he looked like he was enjoying it.

“Here ya go Lucy, sorry they took forever”, Rin said, setting the perfect pancakes she ordered down in front of her, a small slab of butter placed on top and a bottle of fruit syrup that was optional. “Wow thanks. They look delicious. Although I never thought that you can cook. Where did you learn it”, Lucy asked taking a bite of the pancakes. “I learned from books mostly, but I have a sharp taste so I can tell if something is right. They were fluffy and had a perfect taste, not too strong, yet not too bland. Just fine alone, yet so much better with Lucy’s favorite toppings. Rin continued to cook other people’s orders happily, his tail swishing behind him until there was a huge bang and everyone turned to the front of the guild. A silhouette stood in the doorway of a lady in armor and a giant tusk of some kind. Lucy stared in awe at the woman, the guild was quiet for once as her boots clanked against the wood floor. No one made a peep for a second until the master walked forward to greet the mysterious woman.

“Hello Erza, welcome back. How did the job go”, the master asked.

“Thankyou master. The quest was successful and the villagers gave me the tusk of the monster as a sign of gratitude”. Her voice was deep and commanding. She officially was amazing in Lucy’s eyes. It didn’t look that way with the other’s however. Rin was no longer cooking, but praying behind the counter and Natsu and Grey were acting like best friends.

“What’s up with you, shouldn’t you be welcoming her back”? Lucy asked harshly to the cowardly demon hiding behind the counter with his blue eyes and pointy ears visible.

“Are you kidding? Erza is scary”, he said simply.

“So you must be the new member”, the same deep voice said from behind Lucy. It made her jump, but she breathed a sigh of relief at what she saw behind her. It was a tall woman with vermillion colored hair and demanding dark eyes. She was beautiful and a little cute too. She wore armour, a chestplate and shouter guards, long gloves with little wings at the elbows. A blue skirt came with the armour with plates resting over the top and she wore long black boots that went up to her knees. She was elegant and looked very strong and fairly intimidating.

“Uh… Yeah. The name’s Lucy”, Lucy said nervously and they shook hands. Erza’s was covered in armour just like her body.

“It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Erza Scarlet”.

“I can tell. You look like a very strong wizard. Natsu, Rin, and Grey have told me so much about you”.

“Speaking of. How are you two getting along”, She asked Natsu and Grey who were smiling fake smiles and hugging each other. It was odd since Lucy knew they fought all the time, Rin often joined in, but he was too buisy hiding behind the counter “We are doing great Erza”.

“Yup, best pals just as usual”, Grey smiled

“That’s good. Now where is the other fire breathing idiot. He got in trouble and I still need to punish him for it”, Erza said and turned away. Lucy turned to see Rin breathing a sigh of relief and his ears sinking to the side. Suddenly an armored hand flew out and grabbed him by the scruff and hoisting him in the air as easy as someone grabbing a kitten. Kuro meowed in alarm.

“There you are”, Erza said in a menacing voice.

“P-please Erza, have mercy. I didn’t mean to i-it just came out that way”, the demon stammered , his tail curling and his knees tucked against his chest while he hung in the air. “No excuses. You will take your punishment like a good little demon”, she said shaking him. He immediately stopped talking. Lucy looked around at the demons who called him prince and wondered what they thought of their almighty ruler being picked up like a bad puppy and whimpering under a woman’s glove.

“What did he do”? Lucy whispered to Grey.

“He called the master Old Fart”, Grey whispered back.

“Now Erza there is no need for that”, the master said. “But sir”? “He made up for it with a free dinner”.

“Oh”, With that oh Erza dropped the demon and he landed on the floor with a yelp and a thud. Rin somehow darted into the kitchen and continued making his pancakes for the other guests. Lucy wondered what the guy could get away with if he cooks for people. He was good, probably the best, but cooking as bribery was fairly new to Lucy. “Natsu, Grey, Rin. I have a job I need help on so I am taking you with me”, she said to the boys. They blinked for a second in surprise. Looking at each other in confution. “Wait a second Erza. Why do you want to go on another job”, Happy said what everyone was thinking. “This job is not much of a job, but more of a mission. On the way back here I heard about some dark guild called Eizenwald. Apperently they are becoming a lot of trouble and are planning something dangerous. I wanted to go in there and do it myself, but I can’t take on an entire guild alone. I need your help”. “Count us in”, Natsu said happily without anyone’s opinion. Grey and Rin both had an eager discomfort on their face like a kid wanting to go on a rollercoaster for the first time even though they were afraid of heights. “Lucy do you want to join us”? Natsu asked Lucy. “Um sure, but I don’t think I will be much help”. “Nonsense you will be loads of help”, Grey said cooly and gave a slight smile. “Well I guess I will go with you”, Lucy said. “Great. We leave immediately”, Erza commanded. Everyone gaped in horror. Rin dropped the spatula and Grey groaned as if in pain. Nothing worked however since Erza picked them up and started dragging them out with the demon squealing about how he wasn’t done cooking.


End file.
